What Makes You More Resilient?
By David Williams
Resilience is your ability to deal with adversity. It reflects strength and flexibility. When major changes occur, being resilient helps make the most of it. The pandemic impacts us differently. What helps to maintain your resilience?
Look after your body
Sleep, exercise, and good nutrition help your body. Get outdoors and move if you can. Avoid mood-changing drugs and too much alcohol.
Face the issues
Address problems don’t ignore them. Resist reacting to every news report. The first aim of media is to keep you engaged, and we can be easily swayed by this. Follow medical, government, and workplace guidelines, not gossip and innuendo.
Interact with support — family, friends, colleagues
Talking helps. Seek positive social support that encourages and provides feedback with people who will be honest with you. Set boundaries with those who will not. When social distancing limits these conversations, use technology to stay in touch.
We are all in this together. Don’t be a victim of self-focus. Identify how you can contribute and do so. Acknowledge the help of others — it reduces stress.
Aim to keep other changes small
Mostly just focus on urgent issues. Make major life decisions only when you are at your best. Stabilize your work and home environments as much as is possible.
Learn from your past
What has worked in the past? Confidence is a valuable ally in combating stress, and it builds on memories of past successes. Review successes you’ve had with other stressful life situations. Recall some of the specific things you did to cope and do them.
Rest
Stress is exhausting. At least once a day, take time to unwind by relaxing: listen to soothing music, take a walk, garden, read or exercise. If you can, use relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation.
The mind makes things seem worse than they are by creating versions of impending disaster. Because the body can’t tell the difference between fact and fantasy, it responds with heightened physical response. You can calm both your mind and your body by keeping your mind in the present, which is seldom as stressful as an imagined future or regrettable past.
Control what you can
Focus on what you can control. Maintain a regular schedule of familiar activities. Engage in concrete, easily achievable tasks. Action is a powerful stress-reducer: your body lowers its level of epinephrine, a powerful stress hormone, when you shift into action. Let go of what you can’t change.
Your Longevity Plan
Start or revisit your Longevity Plan to prepare for the future. It’s a calming and positive resource.
