Strategies, Skills, Resources and Tools to Build Resilience Amid Crisis
Adversity happens to us all. Resilience allows people to get knocked down and come back stronger than before. Setbacks don’t overcome resilient people. Rather, they overcome difficulty and failure, finding the resolve to rise again.
Coping is a similar concept, allowing people to deal with both internal and external demands in situations that feel threatening.
Resilience is required on a regular basis in today’s modern world. Threats may come in the form of demands at work, relationship struggles, and the incessant ringing and pining of a smartphone. When stressful or difficult challenges arise, they are external demands. When dealing with anxiety, depression or the memory of trauma, that is an example of internal demand. Both external and internal demands require resilience to overcome.
Resilience is a learned set of skills.
Problem-solving right at the moment.
Identifying the root cause of the problem and dealing with it rather than just the recurrent symptoms.
Learning about current coping strategies and converting them to healthier ones.
Recognizing you can handle the pressure by breaking the demands into smaller, manageable chunks.
Choosing to see pressure as an opportunity for growth.
Practices that can help hone resilience skills.
Intentionally focusing on the present moment rather than the past or future. Focusing on the present sets you up to perform at your best. Mindfulness training is useful for both personal and professional stress management.
Physical exercise.
Going for a walk, stretching, lifting weights, attending fitness classes, and practicing yoga all help your body become more resilient. Exercise puts a healthy strain on your body, forcing it to adapt and repair. Gains in your physical body can give you confidence in other realms of your being.
Fill your tank with self-care.
Engaging in activities that fill you up can lead to greater emotional resiliency. Find what you love to do, such as art, playing a sport, writing, spending time in nature, and reading. You give out a lot of emotional energy throughout the day, and filling that void makes a significant difference.
Plan for a financially rainy day.
Having money set aside for life’s inevitable costly circumstances substantially reduces stress. No one enjoys spending money on a new car transmission, but having cash in the bank to pay for it brings peace amid the situation.
Positive relationships.
Spending time with loved ones, talking with friends, and interacting with animals all engage your emotional resilience. Building social support buoys you in tough times.
Participate in a spiritual community.
Committing to a cause greater than yourself while exploring the mystery of positive spirituality can be life-changing.
My story of building resilience.
Before experiencing burnout, I was super fit. Lifting weights, participating in aerobics classes, and running marathons provided a sense of accomplishment, social engagement, and a whole lot of fun. Once burnout struck and my body crashed, I was physically unable to continue doing these activities. Walking and stretching became my form of physical exercise for a period while my adrenal and thyroid systems healed.
Finding a new activity that would bring joy and fulfillment was paramount to healing. That came in the form of horseback riding. A supportive friend invited me to go riding from her farm through the rich forests and bright sunlight. Eventually, I got a beautiful horse of my own for a season.
Although I now participate in more demanding physical activity since recovering from burnout, finding an intermittent source of joy and physical movement was essential for my road to health.
Resilience Resources
Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development provides organizations and individuals with the tools necessary to build resilience.
We offer programs to help you examine the past, assess the present and strategically plan for the future.
Contact us today for a free consultation and see how Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development can help you and your team build resilience during this highly unstable time. Our consulting and coaching can help you break through to the next level.
Resiliency Tool
1. Think of a time when something went really wrong. Did you experience failure, rejection, trauma or a crisis?
2. Consider the weight and impact of that experience.
3. What came about due to the incident? What good came from that tragedy? What would never have happened had the difficulty not occurred? Dig deep. The answers may be obvious or may take some time to process.
4. Reframe the situation by accepting both the negative and positive impact the experience had on your life. Holding both aspects in tension can help build resilience by recognizing that you survived, gained experience, and quite possibly pivoted in a way that positively changed some aspect of your life.
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About the Author
Bonita Eby is a Burnout Prevention & Organizational Culture Consultant, Executive Coach, and owner of Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development Inc., specializing in burnout prevention and wellness for organizations and individuals. Bonita is on a mission to end burnout. Get your free Burnout Assessment today.