Building Resilience: Inner-Work to Persevere

Resilience, Post-Traumatic Growth, Covid-19, Pandemic, Mental Health & Wellness

We've all experienced our fair share of loss, failure, and life events beyond our control which have taken us off course from a desired path. Coping with those losses, rebuilding better, and getting back on track takes a great deal of psycyological resilience, or "mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment" to undesireable circumstances. [1]

Post-traumatic growth after a global pandemic is a great example of how highly resilient people used this skill by remaining optimistic through catastrophic adversity to yield some kind of positive outcome. During the pandemic, the world saw a decline in student mental health and performance, increased worker fatigue, and overwhelming anxiety surrounding finances, daily routines and social gatherings. To regain sanity, people with high resilience used periods of isolation to improve self-care practices, stay connected to loved ones virtually, and even find a deeper meaning to life. [2]

Resilience isn't necessarily a quality that we are born with; it takes quite a bit of failing forward to develop this life skill. In my welcome blog, I shared details about my own losses and plans for rebranding myself professionally. Fun fact about me: I don't pretend to have it all together, and I'm definitely not some kind of mental health guru. I can, however, share some tips on how to build resilience for challenging times that have worked for me:

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1. Remain Optimistic

Stay positive about how things will turn out. Easier said than done, right? Try remembering a time before your current situation where things weren't going as planned. Something good had to have come from it. Did you learn a life lesson that prepared you for the future? Did you find that the outcome was more rewarding that you'd hoped it to be? Find the silver lining.

If seeing the glass as half full is something that you struggle with, try starting a gratitude journal. Speaking from experience: meditating on what you're grateful for is grounding work for finding the good in all things.

2. Express Yourself!

There's more room out than there is in. Stay connected with loved ones, social or religious groups, and a trusted mental health provider. Having a healthy outlet for expressing your emotions lightens the load and gives you space to unpack, process, and regulate feelings that may arise from harships when they happen.

3. Bend, Don't Break!

Be flexible. Expect the unexpected so that when a significant change occurs, it won't be difficult to adjust. Reciting positive affirmations daily, rewarding your small wins, and practicing other healthy habits like time management and goal-setting provides for a life structure that can sustain hard times.

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You Got This!

Nothing is stopping you from doing the inner-work, and you're doing amazing already by just reading this post!

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