Having resilience means you harness the inner strength that helps you bounce back from a setback or challenge, such as a job loss, an illness, a disaster or the death of a loved one. If you are lacking resilience, you might be more apt to dwell on problems, feel victimized, become overwhelmed or turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse. These are all characteristics that increase your risk of developing anxiety, depression, or another mood disorder.

Resilience can help reduce your risk of various mental health conditions and help offset factors that increase the risk of mental health conditions, such as previous trauma. If you have an existing mental health condition, being resilient can also improve your ability to cope with such challenges.

Being resilience won’t mean you don’t have problems or that you can make them go away, but resiliency can give you the ability to see past them, find enjoyment in spite of them and handle stress more effectively.

Can we improve our resiliency?

Psychologists have determined that some of the factors appear to make a person more resilient. Factors such as a positive attitude, optimism, the ability to regulate emotions, and the ability to see failure as a form of helpful feedback.

There even appears to be a genetic predisposition for resilience, but early environments and life circumstances play a role in how these genes are ultimately expressed.

The Mayo Clinic provides us a list of tips we can take to help us improve resilience. Like working a muscle, improving our ability to be resilient in the face of hardships takes time but by integrating these into your life, you will be well on your way.

  1. Get connected. Building strong, positive relationships with loved ones and friends can provide you with needed support and acceptance in both good times and bad. Establish other important connections by volunteering or joining a faith or spiritual community.
  2. Make every day meaningful. Do something that gives you a sense of accomplishment and purpose every day. Set goals to help you look toward the future with meaning. These goals can be as big or as small as you want.
  3. Learn from experience. Think of how you’ve coped with hardships in the past. Consider the skills and strategies that helped you through rough times. You might even write about past experiences in a journal to help you identify positive and negative behaviour patterns — and guide your future behaviour.
  4. Remain hopeful. You can’t change the past, but you can always look toward the future. Accepting and even anticipating change makes it easier to adapt and view new challenges with less anxiety but don’t forget to remain grounded in the present.
  5. Take care of yourself. Tend to your own needs and feelings. Participate in activities and hobbies you enjoy. Include physical activity in your daily routine. Get plenty of sleep. Eat a healthy diet. Practice stress management and relaxation techniques, such as yoga, meditation, guided imagery, deep breathing or prayer.
  6. Be proactive. Don’t ignore your problems. Instead, figure out what needs to be done, make a plan, and take action. Although it can take time to recover from a major setback, traumatic event or loss, know that your situation can improve if you work at it.

Developing resiliency is key to protecting our mental health in the face of a highly challenging life crisis, such as the one we are currently facing in the form of a global pandemic. We can also choose to develop our resilience by adopting a growth instead of a fixed mindset, in which change is perceived as an opportunity for self-learning and discovery.

By striving to live in the moment, remaining optimistic, seeking social support, and immersing ourselves in activities that both give our lives purpose and meaning and provide respite from the crisis, we can harness the inner strength needed to come back even stronger.

Remember that you are more resilient than you give yourself credit for.