What is resilience and how to develop it in crisis situations?

Resilience shows us that the ability to be happy does not depend on purely objective criteria of well-being. Many times, human beings develop the ability to feel stimulated by their lives and able to progress in their lives even in situations where who have suffered a severe blow: after being fired from a job of several years, suffering a severe illness, losing several family members at the same time, etc.

When we are resilient, we connect with that part of ourselves capable of modifying our thinking patterns and our habits in order to get out of a bad situation that we did not have, and although during the process we do not feel 100% in control of our lives, yes we can learn about what works and what does not work to feel good and make things return to their channel.

Not everyone in the world develops resilience every time they go through very bad times, but the good news is that this ability can be enhanced and trained, just as it happens with any type of behavior. Let's see how this is achieved.

• Related article: "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection"

What do we understand by resilience?

In the field of psychology, resilience is a concept that has to do with a set of abilities and psychological predispositions that allow us to overcome situations crisis (collective or individual) and adapt to that new context, facing the challenges that raises. That is, people who have developed a good level of resilience suffer the bad times that they have to live, but they do not let that discomfort paralyze them, and they achieve modify their behaviors and their way of thinking in a constructive way, without giving up the ability to become happy or find satisfaction on a day-to-day basis.

Although there are many notable examples of resilient people, in reality this group of skills and abilities is present to a greater or lesser extent in all people. We have known for a long time that human beings are not only an animal with a great capacity to learn and adapt to a wide variety of environments, but they are also able to adjust their chances of feeling happiness and well-being in very different situations, and this is something that also occurs as we go through various phases of life. lifetime.

For example, the most common is that the level of happiness of people does not fall at the same rate as they age, and in the same way, it is known that generally people with disorders as acquired blindness they do not remain unhappy indefinitely after losing their sight, but after a surprisingly short time they are able to be as happy as forever.

Thus, resilience is not an exceptional phenomenon, but an aspect of the human condition that often expresses itself spontaneously, without even realizing it. However, there are cases in which it does not emerge at the right pace and intensity, and deliberate steps need to be taken to nurture resilience capacity. That is why in cases like this it is important to seek professional help in psychotherapy.

Strategies to enhance resilience

As we have advanced, the most effective way to develop resilience is clearly psychotherapy; However, there are also some habits and strategies that you can apply to your day to day to help you gain strength. Let's see what they are.

1. Establishment of healthy lifestyle habits

It is proven that keeping fit and taking into account the importance of self-care It is an element of prevention of emotional problems, among which are anxiety disorders and depressive-type symptoms. Keeping them at bay is important because these kinds of psychological disturbances tend to make people adopt a passive and defenseless attitude towards the problems that affect them.

Therefore, the hours of weekly moderate exercise, the hours of quality sleep and the moments of maintenance of good personal hygiene are far from being lost time: they help us face problems with charged batteries and in the best conditions, without having our minds divided into other forms of original discomfort physical.

2. Establishment of specific goals and sub-goals

The most resilient people in times of crisis are characterized by always having in mind a series of objectives to be achieved, which must be adapted to your situation initially little flattering.

This offers several points of psychological support.. On the one hand, it makes it more likely that we get down to work with solving the main problems that affect us, by having clear specific goals to address. On the other hand, these references help us to be aware of our progress when we go achieving small victories, and that allows us not to fall into passivity and the idea that "everything is lost".

• You may be interested in: "Performance management: what is this methodology and how does it affect work?"

3. Seeking support from others

Resilience has nothing to do with a purely individual self-improvement process. Part of what allows us to overcome crises has to do with being aware of the importance of solidarity and support networks. If not, the prospect of being alone in the face of what happens to us would paralyze us, at the same time that it would make us feel bad for not being able to face this situation without help from anyone. For this reason, even people who, due to their poor living conditions, do not have many friends or relatives, have As one of their priorities, seek support by expanding their scope of social relationships, and at the same time offering help to the the rest.

4. Application of habits that enhance Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence helps us to correctly identify our emotions and feelings, and to channel them in a way that serves us or at least does not pose a big problem for us. There are several ways to facilitate this, but one of the simplest is to keep an emotion diary, in which you write down the most emotionally relevant day-to-day experiences, the thoughts to which they give way, what they have led us to do, etc.

Do you want to start a psychotherapy process?

If you are going through bad times and are looking for psychological assistance to overcome emotional distress and better adapt to a time of crisis, get in touch with us.

On Advance Psychologists We have been treating patients for more than two decades, and we help people of all ages through individualized psychotherapy services, family and couples therapy, coaching, psychiatry and neuropsychology. In addition, we not only carry out face-to-face therapy sessions in our center located in Madrid, but we also offer online therapy by video call.

Bibliographic references:

• Abraham, R.; Lien, L.; Hanssen, I. (2018). Coping, resilience and posttraumatic growth among Eritrean female refugees living in Norwegian asylum reception centers: A qualitative study. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 64 (4): pp. 359 - 366.
• Bonanno, G.A.; Galea, S.; Bucciareli, A.; Vlahov, D. (2007). What predicts psychological resilience after disaster? The role of demographics, resources, and life stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 75(5): 671 - 682.
• Forés, A. & Grané, J. (2008). The resilience. Grow from adversity. Barcelona: Editorial Platform.
• Poseck, V.; Carbelo, B.; Vecina, M. (2006). The traumatic experience from positive psychology: resilience and post-traumatic growth. Papers of the Psychologist, 27 (1): pp. 40 - 49.
• Sapouna, M.; Wolke, D. (2013). Resilience to bullying victimization: The role of individual, family and peer characteristics. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37 (11): pp. 997 - 1006.
• Southwick, S.M. & Charnie, D.S. (2018). Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.