Emotional Resilience is the process of adapting oneself well to face any significant source of trouble or problem in one’s life. We all have gone through difficult phases in life at some point or the other. It is our emotional resilience that makes us deal with tough times calmly along with solid mental health. It doesn’t mean avoiding the experience of difficulty or distress, but rather, it means an ability to ‘bounce back’ swiftly from these difficult experiences. Some people have a natural ability to face challenges and stress calmly but for many, emotional Resilience is a skill that can be learned or developed. It helps you be able to help yourself and manage your mental health better despite stressful situations, terrible experiences, or medical issues that arise.
Positive Thoughts
Positive thoughts play a crucial role in developing emotional resilience. It makes people more flexible by understanding the situation with clarity by looking at the future and realism. One of the foundations of resilience is the core beliefs of positive thoughts. Positive thoughts motivate people to keep going and come out strong from the tough times. The saying “tough times do not last, but tough people do” is valid for all who fight back and emerge as a more assertive person. Because tough times are not permanent, our spirit and our positive mind play a crucial role in fighting all kinds of battles and emerging as a winner. Emotional resilience helps people quickly adapt to sudden changes or jolts and strike a balance to survive the most challenging life situations.
Finding the right opportunities to increase positivity is also necessary. Since negative incidents are natural, they will always be a part of life, but you can reduce their impact by improving the positive vibes around you by finding good in everything that happens. This can only be done by developing empathy in yourself for your own and others’ experiences.
Ways to Develop Emotional Resilience
There are various ways of boosting your resilience that I can guide you with, starting with developing Self-Understanding. This makes you understand your strengths and further improve on them. Another thing is Self-Awareness; it is the first step towards accepting the situation and identifying solutions by making positive decisions.
Once you know your stressors and understand your shortcomings, you will learn how to fight them out. It starts with an insight into who we are and what we want to do to make things better for us. We need to understand ourselves and build a relationship to cope with our stressors, learn our lessons and soothe ourselves.
Another aspect of building emotional resilience is Social Connections. Having excellent social connections have always helped people to become more resilient person.
There are a lot of benefits of building your social contacts as it can help you express yourself better and understand the difference between right & wrong. In a way, it contributes to your happiness and enables you to reframe your thinking. Social connections also lead to your greater mental and healthy well-being. Having your family and friends around in times of distress helps to reduce your stress level by providing support in tough times as they provide you with an assurance that this too shall pass and good times shall be back soon.
Instilling that emotions are not everlasting makes your tolerance level higher.
Understanding that emotions come and go will give you the strength to sit calmly through the storm and let it pass naturally without havoc.
Finding a True Purpose to Build Emotional Resilience
Finding a true purpose in your life is a must for anything to have permanence. Once we realize this, we process every situation organically and think about what happened and how it could be handled differently to end it. This will help you with an opportunity to reframe the stories you tell yourself & give you space for a healthy reflection. Once you find your true purpose, it will lead you to your path in life. We could try to form a habit of thinking differently.
Like we can create a diary and pen down our ways of coping with hurdles of life. One should always find new ways of learning & new coping strategies which work for you differently. Your past can teach you the difference also. If nothing is working the way you want it to be, seek counselling and ask for help. There is no shame in that. If you feel you cannot process and handle stuck, you can build your Resilience with professional help.
Healthy Body and Mind
The only way towards being a resilient person is to focus on a holistic Self. Taking care of your body & mind regularly will help you process your emotions without judgement and assist you in decision making & strengthen you to face challenges.According to the analysis of Resilience & mental health, Resilience is negatively correlated with indicators of mental well-being like depression, anxiety & negative emotions and positively related with positive indicators such as Satisfaction, Happiness, and other positive emotions.
Resilience gives you the strength to overcome what life throws at you. If resilience is low, it is easy to get overwhelmed and turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Various clients have shown resilience & fought battles of their mental illness like depression or anxiety by overcoming each day with hope. Resilience also plays a significant role to help you balance your life and various parts, thereby protecting your mental & physical health. It further helps in managing emotions & stress. Being resilient makes you a master at Problem Solving & Learning and also help you cope with grief, loss & trauma. It develops a positive self-image.
As a psychologist, I would say that resilience happens when you make a conscious choice to bet on yourself. Choose yourself every minute of the day so that you can craft a beautiful future to the best of your ability and lead a happy life.
