Resilience: Your Psychological Body Armour
What does it mean to be resilient?
Perhaps, for you, it conjures up an image of someone strong and tough; someone who can withstand even the greatest challenges in life and make it through unscathed. Maybe you’re picturing unwavering perseverance, immediate bounce back in the face of adversity or ‘not sweating the small stuff’.
When we hear the word ‘resilience’ in our day-to-day lives, it does often hold the above connotations. But, when we dive a little deeper into the psychological world, is that the full picture?
What is Psychological Resilience?
Far from being about withstanding all that life throws at us unaffected, psychological resilience is all about tapping into our inner strengths and outer resources to adapt and change in response to difficult events.
It’s not about not feeling the hard times.
Or not responding to them.
It’s not about staying the same through the ups and downs of life.
Or barely noticing the struggles.
It’s not about effortless recovery.
Or not getting knocked down at all.
Psychological resilience is about experiencing it all and exercising emotional, mental and behavioural flexibility to adjust to internal and external events. It’s about getting back up, changed but renewed, adapting positively and maintaining or regaining mental health.
Signs of Psychological Resilience
Over the years, research has identified a number of signs that correlate with strong psychological resilience. In individuals, this can include things like:
⋒ Responding well to criticism
⋒ Having a positive outlook
⋒ Recovering quickly from setbacks
⋒ Treating oneself with kindness and forgiveness (even after mistakes)
⋒ High self-esteem
⋒ Confidence in asking for help
Ultimately though, the most important thing when considering psychological resilience is how YOU are feeling. Does life often feel overwhelming and out of control? Do you find it difficult to recover from stressful situations? Are you struggling to adapt to life changes, big and small? If the answer to any of these is yes, then you might want to explore some ways to strengthen your psychological resilience within yourself or with outside support.
What Factors Might Impact Our Psychological Resilience?
Why are we not all able to tackle the tough times with equal resilience?
First, it is worth noting that whilst many of our friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances might ‘appear’ psychological resilient and ‘fine’ on the surface, they may well be struggling internally.
Secondly, there are so many factors that might influence how psychologically resilient we are as we walk through life. Here are just a few that research has identified:
Individual personality traits, such as self-directness, cooperativeness, harm avoidance and persistence (Eley et al., 2013).
Environmental factors, such as social support (Yoruk et al., 2021), security of relationships and community resources (Hermann et al. 2011).
Biological factors, such as neural networks and sensitivity of receptors (Hermann et al. 2011).
Learned capacity, such as coping mechanisms to deal with stressful situations and developmental learning during childhood (Mastern & Barnes, 2018).
Our psychological resilience can be transient: subject to increased vulnerability at times as well as open to being developed with learning and practice.
Why is it Important to Build Psychological Resilience?
Although there are some genetic and biological factors that may shape our baseline levels of psychological resilience, it is still possible to develop greater resilience through learnt capacity. This can help us to feel and cope better with life’s challenges and handle stress in a more positive way. Although psychological resilience does not make us immune to stress or stressful situations, it can enable you to release control, recover more quickly and continue on with a more positive mindset.
Conclusion
Psychological resilience is the ability to positively adapt to stressful situations and difficult life events. There are a number of influencing factors, as well as signs that may indicate high levels of resilience.
It is possible to build and strengthen your psychological resilience over time. In the next journal article, I’ll take you through three essential steps to strengthening your psychological resilience to stress. Doing those three things will drastically improve your physical and mental health and wellbeing, and enable you to be more psychologically resilient to life’s inevitable stressors and challenges.
Further Support
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss individual support for managing your stress.
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References
Eley, D.S., Cloninger, C.R., Walters, L., Laurence, C., Synnott, R., Wilkinson, D. (2013). The relationship between resilience and personality traits in doctors: implications for enhancing well being. PeerJ., 1(e216), 1–16.
Hermann, H., Stewart, D.E., Diaz-Granados, N., Berger, E.L., Jackson, B., Yuen, T. (2011). What is resilience? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(5), 258-65.
Masten, A.S. & Barnes, A.J. (2018). Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. Children, 5, 98.
Yörük, S. & Güler, D. (2021) The Relationship between Psychological Resilience, Burnout, Stress, and Sociodemographic Factors with Depression in Nurses and Midwives during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Turkey. Perspect Psychiatr Care, 57, 390–398.