Developing Resilience During Tough Times

COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill, this is one of the toughest challenges ever faced by our generation. However, to refresh your memory that our ancestors have come out, survived, and thrived after those challenging situations many times as they were resilient and motivated to build a better world for their children. Due to their resilience, we were able to nurture in our lives, today.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we are living in uncertain times, never seen before by our generation since we are born. We can’t say for sure if our jobs will be secure tomorrow, our health will stay good the next day or our family, and friends will be safe from COVID-19. When such difficulties strike, it may feel like that life is no more hopeful, even if it is not true. We have a choice to ‘not to be afraid’, as resilience is much stronger than fear. The choices we make today, during tough times will determine how resilient we are?

Psychologists define ‘resilience’ as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, tragedy, threats, or stress such as serious health conditions like COVID-19, family problems, or workplace and financial issues due to lockdown. Resilience is more about being able to come through challenges in a way that we can feel good about the outcome. When we are in a tough situation, we feel stressed and frightened which is a quite natural behavior, but we need to find a way to engage in our lives and move forward to achieve our goals despite the tough times.

Although some people have a natural capacity to bounce back from adversity, others do not. Do not worry, if you are not naturally resilient as resilience is like other skills, that can be learned. Once learned, resilience will serve you a lot throughout your life, and once mastered, you will always able to overcome difficult times, yet thrive after developing new skills and ways of dealing with life without fear. Always remember that every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carry with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit.

So, how one can be more resilient when things get tough? To keep moving forward, I would advise the following:

No Crisis is Unconquerable: You need to believe that you are bigger than your problem, stronger than your obstacles, and higher than your barriers. You can make a difference if you avoid seeing any crisis as unconquerable. The human race has overcome the tougher crisis in history, and we will come out of this coronavirus pandemic as well, and we will be more resilient for the next one, and better prepared.

Communicate & Build Relationships: One of the best ways to cope with adversity is by talking with others regularly and effectively. But to communicate, you need to build your network. Resilient persons maintain strong and supportive relationships, both in personal and professional life, and as a result, they have caring, supportive people around them during tough times so that you do not feel alone.

Be Adaptable to Change: Things do not go on forever as you planned, and the quicker you accept that change is inevitable, the happier you are going to be.  When faced with a challenge, resilient people are more likely to see the opportunities to enact positive changes. Due to COVID-19, offices are closed, and work from home is a new normal, adopt it, and embrace the change without compromising on your productivity.

Create Goals and Take Actions: Create goals for things you want to do and taking actions to achieve them as it is an essential trait of resilient people. The path towards our goals may not always be easy, but creating goals, whether big or small, is part of what makes life worth. It gives our existence, a sense of meaning and purpose, and keeps us interested and engaged, all of which are good for building resilience.

Create Your Own Reality: As someone said, ‘whatever a person’s mind dwells on intensely and with firm resolve, that is exactly what he becomes’. Take simple steps that you can take to make a better you and create your own reality by empowering yourself and disempowering those who have wrong perceptions about you. Be resilient and create the life of your dreams and dare to strive for the spectacular.

Nurture a Positive View of Yourself: We are living in a judgmental world from the moment we are born with labels e.g. appearance, race, gender, smart, dumb, loser, winner, and quitter, etc. Develop confidence and nurture a positive view of yourself to build resilience. Stay positive, and surround yourself with positive people, and stop thinking other’s opinions are more important. Try to recognize your skills, learn from failure, and make a positive impact on the world.

Look for Hopeful Future: Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today. Feeling or inspiring optimism about a future is important because hope is the key to achieving your goals. We must be inspired about the future regardless of the challenges we experience along the way.

Help Others and Keep Giving: There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. People appreciate and never forget that helping hand especially when times are tough. Take the time to help other people without expecting a reward or gratitude is important in living an optimistic life. We need to believe that “the more I help others to succeed, the more I succeed”.

The above advice can help you cope with the tough situation when they arise e.g. COVID-19, but also will help you to prepare for other challenges in the future. As resilience can be learned, I would again suggest doing enough practice, as you have the above-mentioned techniques that will help to keep you afloat when times get tough. By knowing that you have built-up your resilience skills can be a great comfort, and you will have strengths to cope, recover from challenges, and yet thrive once again when tough times are over.

 Written by: Mujahid Akhtar