How resilient are you?

Life is unpredictable, challenging and at times traumatic, this inevitable causes stress. I often find myself saying to myself and others “It’s not what happens to you in life that matters, it’s how you deal with what happens to you.”

When faced with stress of any kind, we move from a logical, rational brain to our reptilian brain, where the survival instinct kicks in. You have probably heard of the fight, flight or freeze responses.

A little bit of stress can be good as the adrenaline we experience can be motivating. However, if you’re dealing with acute stress over sustained period of time, your ability to cope and concentrate may suffer.

When we are stressed a whole lot of physiological reactions take place in our bodies.  Our hearts beat faster, in order to carry blood to the parts of the body it’s most needed. Our breathing becomes shallower and quicker, to try and get more oxygen to our body. We can perspire, to prevent overheating. Our mouth feels dry, as our digestive system slows down. Such physical changes can lead us to feeling anxious and worried. However, after the danger has passed, our body returns to normal.

This fight, flight or freeze response is not just present in the face of physical danger, the body react the same way to situations that you find emotionally upsetting e.g. an intense workload, relationship problems, financial difficulties. In these cases, you can’t flee as you would a physical danger, you have to stay and deal with the situation which means your body can’t return to homoeostasis (the state of equilibrium or optimal functioning).

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficult experiences. Resilience involves thoughts, behaviours and actions. Resilience can be learned.  When was the last time you looked at how to be more resilient?

To read my top tips in building resilience click here https://www.braintrain.me/-add-blogs-here/2019/3/16/resilience-the-antidote-to-stress