What is resilience and how to develop it in crisis situations?

Let's see what are the characteristics of psychological resilience and how to promote it.

Resilience shows us that the ability to be happy does not depend on purely objective criteria of well-being. Often, human beings develop the capacity to feel stimulated by their lives and capable of progressing in their lives even in situations in which they have suffered a hard blow: after being fired from a job for several years, suffering a severe illness, 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 our 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 does not work to feel good and get things back on track.

Not everyone in the world develops resilience every time they go through very bad timesBut the good news is that this capacity can be enhanced and trained, just as with any type of behavior. Let's see how this is achieved.

What do we mean by resilience?

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.. In other words, people who have developed a good level of resilience suffer the bad times they have to live through, but do not let this discomfort paralyze them, and manage to modify their behavior and their way of thinking in a constructive way, without giving up the ability to become happy or to find satisfaction in their daily lives.

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. We have long known that human beings are not only animals with a great capacity to learn and adapt to a wide variety of environments, but that they are also capable of adjusting their ability to feel happiness and well-being in very different situations, and this is also true as we go through various stages of life.

For example, it is most common that people's level of happiness does not drop at the same rate as they age, and similarly, it is known that people with conditions such as acquired blindness do not generally remain unhappy indefinitely from the time they lose their sight, but after a surprisingly short time are able to be as happy as ever.

Thus, resilience is not an exceptional phenomenon, but an aspect of the human condition that often expresses itself spontaneously, without us even realizing it. However, there are cases in which resilience does not emerge at the right pace and intensity, and deliberate action is needed to nurture resilience.. That is why in such cases it is important to seek professional help in psychotherapy.

Strategies to enhance resilience

As we have already mentioned, the most effective way to develop resilience is, clearly, psychotherapy; however, 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.

1. Establishing healthy lifestyle habits

It has been proven that keeping in shape and taking into account the importance of self-care is an element of prevention of emotional problems, among which are anxiety disorders and depressive symptoms.. Keeping them at bay is important because this kind of psychological alterations tend to make people adopt a passive and helpless attitude towards the problems that affect them.

Therefore, hours of moderate weekly exercise, hours of quality sleep and moments of maintaining good personal hygiene are far from being wasted time: they help us to face problems with our batteries charged and in the best conditions, without having our minds divided on other forms of discomfort of physical origin.

2. Setting concrete goals and sub-goals

The most resilient people in times of crisis are characterized by always having in mind a series of goals 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 down to work with the solution of the main problems that affect us, as we have clear specific goals to address. On the other hand, these benchmarks help us to be aware of our progress as we achieve small victories, and that allows us not to fall into passivity and the idea that "all is lost".

3. Seeking support from others

Resilience is not a purely individual process of self-improvement.. Part of what enables us to overcome crises has to do with being aware of the importance of solidarity and support networks. If this were not the case, the prospect of being alone in the face of what happens to us would paralyze us, while making us feel bad for not being able to cope with the situation without help from anyone else. For this reason, even people who, due to their poor living conditions, do not have many friends or relatives, have as one of their priorities to seek support by expanding their scope of social relations, and at the same time offering help to others.

4. Application of habits that promote Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence helps us to correctly identify our emotions and feelings, and to channel them in a way that helps us or at least does not cause us a big problem.. There are several ways to facilitate this, but one of the simplest is to keep a diary of emotions, in which to write down the most emotionally relevant experiences of the day to day, the thoughts that lead to them, 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.

At Avance Psychologists we have been treating patients for more than two decades, and we help people of all ages through individualized psychotherapy services, family and couple therapy, coaching, psychiatry and neuropsychology. In addition, we not only conduct face-to-face therapy sessions at our center located in Madrid, but we also offer online therapy via video call.

Bibliographical references:

• Abraham, R.; Lien, L.; Hanssen, I. (2018). Coping, resilience and posttraumatic growth among Eritrean female refugees living in Norwegian asylum reception centres: A qualitative study. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 64 (4): pp. 359 - 366.
• Bonanno, G.A.; Galea, S.; Bucciareli, A.; Vlahov, D. (2007). What predicts psychological resilience after disaster? The role of demographics, resources, and life stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 75(5): 671 - 682.
• Forés, A. & Grané, J. (2008). La resiliencia. Crecer desde la adversidad. Barcelona: Plataforma Editorial.
• Poseck, V.; Carbelo, B.; Vecina, M. (2006). La experiencia traumática desde la psicología positiva: resiliencia y crecimiento postraumático. Papeles del Psicólogo, 27(1): pp. 40 - 49.
• Sapouna, M.; Wolke, D. (2013). Resilience to bullying victimization: The role of individual, family and peer characteristics. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(11): pp. 997 - 1006.
• Southwick, S.M. & Charnie, D.S. (2018). Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.