MENTAL HEALTH: Time to ramp up your resilience

Life is never linear. Just when you think you might be getting ahead there will no doubt be something around the corner that will knock you back into line. These ups and downs range from the minor inconveniences we all experience from time to time to major traumatic life events that can have lasting effects.
Life’s surprises have different impacts depending on the person, triggering new thoughts and emotions, leaving us feeling in unfamiliar territory. Resilience – your ability to adapt well to times of adversity and stress – has a large part to play in how you respond.
It’s important to note that resilience is not about avoiding troubling times of distress. These things will still happen irrespective of how bulletproof your resilience might be, unfortunately. But what it all comes back to, what will determine how you cope, is the way you respond and react in such situations.
In fact, going through tough times actually builds resilience. Meeting the challenge of dealing with and overcoming such events makes our resilience, well, more resilient.
The good news is that resilience isn’t an innate, static personality trait. You can work to improve your resilience, developing it over time as you take control over your behaviours and thoughts.

Building resilience
Let’s look at some recommended practices that can help strengthen resilience.
The first, which should go without saying, is to mind your body. Stress has a huge physical impact alongside its emotional toll, so including positive lifestyle actions will be beneficial. This includes sufficient sleep, regular exercise, as well as good nutrition and hydration.
If helpful for you, try to keep things in perspective. Trying not to catastrophise will help to ensure that your reactions and thoughts are realistic and balanced. If you can continue to hold a positive outlook, the negativity will pass, diminishing its effect.
Often people turn to wellbeing tools in times of great stress, in an effort to help them overcome the period with as little disruption as possible. If you’re lucky, you’ll see an impact but more often than not, it may not be hugely successful. It’s much better to be prepared rather than trying to scrabble for a quick fix in the midst of a crisis.
For this reason, it is important to work on creating your resilience toolkit before the stress lands into your life and continues to grow. This way, you’ll have everything you need built up and in place for when tougher times inevitably come knocking.

Not coping?
Of course, our reactions to stress and crisis are deeply personal. Perhaps neither your own resources nor the tips I have mentioned so far are working you for some particular reason – or worse, could be causing you to get stuck. If so, please do not despair, as there are solutions available to help you.
If you’re finding it hard to cope with stressors or you have experienced a major traumatic event, you should reach out for help to support you through this period and into the future. Professionals, such as your GP, psychologist or counsellor, will be best placed to assist in times when you’re resilience is at a low ebb.
Sometimes challenges are just too big for us to conquer on our own, and the guidance of a professional can make all the difference. Remember, you don’t have to go through anything alone.

Sadhbh Dunne is a qualified life coach based in Westport. She is the founder of Ember Coaching (embercoaching.ie) and can be reached at sadhbh@embercoaching.ie.