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 capacity to feel stimulated by their lives and able to progress in it even in situations in which they have suffered a hard blow: after being fired from a job of several years, when suffering a severe illness, when 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 habits in order to get out of a bad situation that we did not count on, and although during the process we do not feel 100% in control. of our lives, we can learn about what works and what doesn’t work to feel good and get things back on track.
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.
In the field of psychology, resilience is a concept that has to do with a set of skills and psychological predispositions that allow us to overcome crisis situations (collective or individual) and adapt to this new context, facing the challenges it poses to us. That is to say, people who have developed a good level of resilience suffer the bad moments that they have to live through, but they do not let that discomfort paralyze them, and they manage to modify their behaviors and their way of thinking in a constructive way, without giving up the ability to become happy or find satisfaction in everyday life.
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. For some time now, we have known that human beings are not only animals with a great capacity to learn and adapt to a wide variety of environments, but they are also capable of adjusting their possibilities of feeling happiness and well-being in very different situations, and this It is something that also occurs as we go through various phases of life.
For example, the most common thing is that people’s level of happiness does not fall at the same rate as they age, and in the same way, it is known that generally people with disorders such as acquired blindness do not remain unhappy indefinitely since they They lose their sight, but after a surprisingly short time they are able to be as happy as ever.
Thus, resilience is not an exceptional phenomenon, but rather an aspect of the human condition that is often expressed spontaneously, without us even realizing it. However, There are cases in which this does not emerge with the appropriate pace and intensity, and it is necessary to take deliberate measures to feed the capacity for resilience.. That is why in cases like this it is important to seek professional help in psychotherapy.
Strategies to enhance resilience
As we have anticipated, the most effective way to develop resilience is, clearly, psychotherapy; In any case, there are also some habits and strategies that you can apply to your daily life to help it gain strength. Let’s see what they are.
It has been proven that staying in shape 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 symptoms.. Keeping them at bay is important because these types of psychological alterations tend to make people adopt a passive and helpless attitude towards the problems that affect them.
Consequently, the hours of moderate weekly exercise, the hours of quality sleep and the moments of maintaining good personal hygiene are far from wasted time: they help us face problems with charged batteries and in the best conditions, without having the mind divided into other forms of discomfort of physical origin.
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 achieve, which must be adapted to their initially unfavorable situation.
This offers several points of psychological support. On the one hand, it makes it more likely that we will get to work 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 achieve small victories, and that allows us not to fall into passivity and the idea that “everything is lost.”
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 help networks. If this were not the case, the prospect of being alone in the face of what happens to us would paralyze us, while at the same time it would make us feel bad for not being able to face that situation without anyone’s help. For this reason, even people who, due to their poor living conditions, do not have many friends or family, have one of their priorities as seeking support by expanding their scope of social relationships, and at the same time offering help to others.
4. Application of habits that enhance Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence It 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 emotions diary, in which you write down the most emotionally relevant experiences from day to day, 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 discomfort and better adapt to a time of crisis, contact us.
In Advance Psychologists We have been treating patients for more than two decades, and we help people of all ages through individualized psychotherapy, family and couples therapy, coaching, psychiatry and neuropsychology services. 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.
