Resilience: what it is and how to increase it in 10 tips

People can reach cope with many situations of adversity or loss throughout our lives, but we also have the ability to overcome them to move on.

This ability to overcome obstacles is resilience, but not everyone has the same facility to adapt to adverse situations. In this article we teach you 10 strategies to be a more resilient person and be able to overcome bad experiences.

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Resilience: what is it?

As we mentioned, resilience is a human capacity to adapt to adverse situations and cope with obstacles or traumatic experiences, such as loss of loved ones, illnesses or other problems that can generate emotional pain and psychological discomfort.

Being resilient implies living these shocking and painful experiences, and despite everything managing to overcome them to move on and not stagnate in pain. In some cases it is also related to ability to emerge even stronger from these situations.

Resilience is a capacity that we can all have to a greater or lesser extent, but that develops over time and can be improved.

What makes us more resilient? Here's what highly resilient people have in common.

Characteristics of resilient people

As we said, every human being has in a certain way a psychological ability to overcome and cope with painful situations, but it is a trait that develops throughout life and is not defined.

Resilience is related to the way people experience these situations of discomfort and the habits that allow them to overcome the blows of life. There are a number of common traits in people who have this ability more developed.

• They have self-confidence and self-esteem
• They are realistic
• They are flexible
• They have the ability to improve
• They live in the present
• They show empathy
• They have goals
• They control their impulses
• They surround themselves with positivism
• They are active

But beyond having these traits or habits, there are ways to train and enhance our resilience. Here are 10 strategies to increase this virtue and become a more resilient person.

How to increase our resilience with 10 strategies

Now that you've seen what characteristics and habits make a person resilient, we show you what strategies you can adopt to improve the way you deal with difficult situations.

1. Be flexible

Resilience is knowing how to adapt to change, so maintaining a flexible attitude towards life is essential to be able to overcome obstacless and not break before them. It is important not to let adversities occupy our lives, but to be the ones to adapt to them. Life is changes and we must learn to receive them.

2. Trust yourself

Another important part of resilience is to believe in ourselves. If we give up or don't believe in our ability to get aheadWe will only reinforce that idea and we will stagnate in defeatism. That is why we must know ourselves well and improve our self-confidence.

3. Recover strategies from the past and relativize

Relativizing the situation will also help us to see that we are capable of overcoming it. One way to do this is by remembering similar past events and analyze the strategies that once helped you overcome it.

This helps us to get to know each other better and to know how we deal with difficult situations, but it also helps us to recover those strategies that were useful to us. Comparing the current situation with other past ones will help us to relativize and be aware that we have that resilience capacity to be able to move forward.

4. Learn from the situation

Another way to be more resilient is by learning from the lesson. Let's not focus on thinking about why it happened, but what we can get out of it. This will help us to bring out the good in the situation to be able to face the future in a different way and with more force.

5. Look for solutions or new opportunities

Resilient people not only do not get stuck in the problem, they they are proactive and take action to find solutions. Think about what you can do to get ahead and do it. In relation to the previous point, learn from the situation and take advantage of it as a new opportunity. Do not think that you have not been able to do anything, think about what you can do.

6. Set goals

Another characteristic of people with more resilience is that of set goals and objectives that give a new meaning to your life after a bad experience. Find something that gives you a sense of purpose, or start activities that help you feel better. Do not forget that the new proposed goals must be realistic.

7. Stick to healthy habits

Maintain or start healthy habits like exercising regularly, adopting a balanced diet and getting better rest will help you get out of the loop of discomfort. Staying healthy and strong will help you be more emotionally prepared.

8. Maintain communication with others

Another strategy that will help increase your resilience is related to your personal relationships. Getting away from people when you are having a bad experience contributes to perpetuating the discomfort, so it is important not to lose contact with friends and family, and knowing how to ask them for help if you need it. They can be a necessary support to get ahead.

9. Find ways to manage stress

Expressing our emotions to other people can help alleviate the discomfort in which we are mired, but there are other ways to release stress and tension that we may feel at that moment and that prevent us from continuing go ahead. Are helpful activities such as meditation or starting a journal in which to expresss.

10. Stay positive

As we've already seen, attitude is everything in resilience, so it will be important. face the situation with optimism and hope. Nothing will help you cope more with a hopeless situation than striving to face it with optimism, to show that you can move forward.

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