Resilience is our ability to bounce back from adversity and trauma. This quality is the key to our ability to cope with what life throws at us. Resilient people are better able to handle stress, take on challenges, and keep going even when obstacles seem insurmountable. It can also be a criterion for mental health – the more resilient we are, the healthier we are. High resilience is a strength through which we pass with ease through difficulties and troubles.
Resilience helps us cope with stress.
Stress is too common for many. According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, 25 percent of American adults report experiencing high levels of stress. Another 50 percent reported having moderate levels of stress.
Why is this so important? That’s because stress isn’t just unpleasant, it can have a serious effect on both your physical and mental health. Being resilient means you will be better able to cope with stress and reduce its harmful effects. Chronic stress weakens the immune system and can lead to psychological or physiological illnesses. Excessive stress leads to blockages, saps our motivation and can cause us to withdraw into our shell or give up on an endeavor.
When does our resilience decrease and when does it increase? It is common knowledge that adversity tempers character and makes us stronger. But only those difficulties that are suitable for us, to which we can adapt and endure. Experiences are more valuable than thousands of learned theories! When we lack enough physical or mental exercise in our lives, we become weaker. Stresses for the psyche are like weights for muscles – they make it stronger and more resistant. Another thing that weakens our resilience is vices. The more we are tempted by harmful things, the weaker we become. Many of us are aware that when we’ve had too much alcohol the night before, in the morning we feel run down, dizzy and out of tune. The temptation that has given us pleasure or peace in the evening has robbed us of our strength the next day.
It is a mistake to think that suppressing feelings leads to more resilience, in fact the opposite is true. When we correctly identify and understand the reasons for our feelings, we are better able to shake off the stress of a stressful situation.
Studies show that more resilient people are also more optimistic. When we interpret what happens to us in a positive way, even when it is unpleasant, we increase our resilience.
Lack of resilience can also be a sign of unresolved mental issues. Bad mental states are a consequence of mental deficiency. When we lack motivation for vital things, when we fall into apathy or excessive anxiety, when we experience strong dissatisfaction or anger and a desire to be destructive, this is a consequence of insufficient positive willpower. These are signs that we have lost mental strength that we need to restore. Its recovery is slow and accompanied by crises and hardships. Through them, we purify ourselves from bad conditions and recharge ourselves with new life forces.
An ancient saying says that the more pain you can bear, the stronger you become. Still some of the ancient philosophers insisted on their new followers being subjected to insults and ridicule by their like-minded people to test how persistent and determined they were to follow their teachings. Ancient warriors also knew that battle hardening would make them stronger and more resilient. In general, in the past there were more hardships and adversities that made people stronger and more resilient. This may have been hunger, cold, great restrictions or physical exertion.
According to studies, those who have the lightest burden complain the most about life. Is really the lightest cross, actually the heaviest? Don’t psychological deficits hurt more than external factors? Doesn’t inner emptiness embitter even the most wonderful material abundance? It often happens that rich people abuse drugs the most, driven by strong inner longings and frustrations. Don’t wealth, power, fame, excessive abundance damage the soul much more than we thought?
Today’s tendencies to seek to dull all pain, to seek all possible comforts and eases, to follow quick and easy solutions, make our psyche more unstable, lower our tolerance and make us less resistant to difficulties and suffering. This leads to the development of more weaknesses and fears in us that slow down and complicate our growth.
