Resilience: More Than Just a Buzzword

Resilience is not only critical to our success in the workplace and relationships - but also fundamental to our wellbeing in the long term.

And the good thing about resilience is that it can be developed to help increase your capacity to be your best.

According to a recent article by the National Association of Women in Operations (NAWO) in Australia, practical resilience has several definitions, including:

• The ability to react to a potential crisis
• Helps us to recover quickly from setbacks
• The ability of government to identify, assess, and respond to a potentially disruptive situation in order to prevent it from becoming a crisis, and
• Elasticity or the ability of matter to spring back quickly into shape after being bent, stretched, or deformed.

NAWO presents interactive learning workshops through the Resilience Institute to help introduce participants to the fundamentals of resilience.

These workshops explore four key areas:

1. Stress Mastery

Maintaining calm, alertness and engagement

2. Physical Vitality

Building energy, strength and endurance

3. Performance Mindset

Aligning your mind and emotions for performance

4. Spirit in Action

Authentic happiness with integral daily practice.

The resilience workshops are, according to NAWO, designed to enable people in all walks of life to reach professional and personal fulfilment.

More than 50,000 people worldwide have taken programs with the Resilience Institute, which has a worldwide network to assist organisations of all sizes towards higher performance.

Similarly, the American Psychology Association (APA) contends there are a number of factors that contribute to resilience.

The APA states that one of the primary factors of resilience is having caring and supportive relationships - both within and outside the family.

Other factors associated with resilience, include:

·     The capacity to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out

·     A positive view of yourself and confidence in your strengths and abilities

·     Skills in communication and problem solving

·     The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses.

Fortunately, all of these factors can be developed, says the ACA.

Another factor in resilience is that different people use different strategies - since not everyone reacts in the same way to traumatic and stressful life events.

For example, a person's culture may have an affect on how he or she deals with their feelings or adversity.

Other good ways to build resilience include involvement in civic groups, faith-based organizations, or other local groups, which provide social support and assistance.

Volunteering or helping others is an excellent way to strengthen resilience, as it also benefits the helper.

Also, the ACA recommends accepting that some circumstances simply cannot be changed.

By doing this, it enables you to focus more clearly on the circumstances that you can alter.

Another good way to improve resilience is to develop realistic goals - and carry out regular steps to help you move towards those goals.

And don’t forget to take just small steps by working on things you can accomplish today - rather than focusing on tasks that may seem unachievable.

By taking decisive actions rather than detaching completely from problems or stresses you will improve your self-confidence, and gradually become more optimistic and resilient.

Finally, try to engage in activities that you enjoy and find relaxing such as exercising regularly, for example.

By taking care of yourself in this way, you will be better able to prepare both your mind and body to deal with situations that require resilience.

By Professor Gary Martin FAIM FACE