Building Your Resilience

Building Your Resilience

The one thing that’s certain about life is that it’s unpredictable. You may feel like you’re just about managing the everyday challenges then along comes a stressful situation or a traumatic event. Some things, like the death of a loved one or a serious accident, you might think you’ll never get over. Yet in time, most people adapt to their ‘new normal.’ Resilience is what helps them not only bounce back, but get to a point where they can thrive once again.

What Is Resilience?

Ask a psychologist what resilience is and they will most likely tell you that it’s being able to adapt well to adversity, trauma, or stress. They will also tell you that resilience can help you grow through and after adversity.  What they won’t ever say is that you ‘should be’ resilient in the face of adversity or trauma. This is a common narrative; that when something happens, we need to just ‘get over it.’

Resilience is not sweeping something under the rug, repressing how you feel, or drinking alcohol to help you cope. Instead, it’s about allowing yourself to experience and process difficult feelings and emotions (which you can do with the help of a trained therapist). This is a far better way to improve your capacity to cope and find your way back to living a positive and fulfilling life again.

It is possible. There’s evidence to suggest that many people go on to grow and flourish after trauma. So the message is, rather than expecting to ‘get over’ things quickly, let yourself explore what’s really going on for you and some good can come of it.

Building Resilience Tips

Even if you feel like you aren’t so resilient right now, you can build your resilience. It does take time, but it’s worth it if you want to feel better equipped to handle the storms of life. Here are our top tips.

Connect with others

There’s nothing more isolating than going through something painful alone. Even if your tendency is to isolate yourself, connecting with people you trust and who care for you can make you feel so much more resilient. There’s power in community whether it’s your family, friendship group, church, or a community group you’re part of.

Take care of yourself

Everyone’s talking about self-care but aside from the mentions of spa days and long hot baths, taking proper care of yourself is an important way to maintain good mental health and build resilience. Eating well, getting enough sleep, and staying active can help reduce stress and mitigate its effects on your body and mind.

Set some goals

Setting some realistic goals and doing something to work towards them, no matter how small, can really build your resilience and self-esteem. When you’re dealing with something difficult and painful, it can be easy to lose your way. But ask yourself, what can I do today that is going to take me one step further towards where I want to be? For example, if you’ve been struggling with your feelings and you know you need to talk to someone, you could take the leap and finally book that therapy session.

Get help

If something traumatic has happened or you’re dealing with multiple stressors in your day-to- day life, there can come a point when you just feel stuck and unable to move forward. This is where a trained therapist can help. A trained professional can provide the safe, non-judgemental space you need to work through your feelings as well as helping you realise that you’re not alone on the journey.

At Talk Works, we believe in helping people improve their mental health today, for a better tomorrow. We work alongside HR Teams, Occupational Health, and Line Managers nationwide to help employees work well, feel well, and engage well at work.

Find out more about what we do and how you can access support.