How Do We Develop Resilience So We Have It When We Need It?

Posted
07/01/2016
Author
Lise Ribeiro

Resilience is quite the buzzword at the moment. And with the floods causing devastation up and down the country this Christmas, many people have had to strongly rely on theirs.

I can only imagine how you must feel once your home or business has been flooded and for some more than once! Then you have to deal with the aftermath; the cleaning up and loss of personal items, never mind dealing with the insurance – that is if you can have insurance, or if you can get it again.

It must call for serious inner strength and resilience to get through something like this, particularly if there is a possibility that it might happen again!

But what if your energy tank is already low when something like this happens? How can you find the resilience and strength to deal with an event that is really stressful and calls for all your energy? Can you develop your resilience so that when faced with a stressful scenario you are better equipped?

I believe that we all have in-built resilience, but depending on when in our life we might need it, we could have more or less.

What I have discovered is that I need to look after my health, both physical and mental, to keep my resilience up. I know I have to listen to my body’s messages so that I get enough sleep and enough exercise (not my favourite thing as those who know me will attest to!) and eat sensibly – a bit easier now that Christmas is out of the way!

Quite often we do not know that we need to learn about our own resilience until something goes wrong.

Learning from my own stories has been a huge help for me over the last couple of years when I have been faced with stressful situations. You can also build your own personal practices, such a meditation, which increase your resilience.

But I also know that I need to challenge myself in order to develop my resilience – get out of my comfort zone now and then. Increasing stress levels in a manageable way is good for increasing my resilience.

It is not always easy but is hugely rewarding.

Lise Ribeiro

Head of Whole Person Working Initiatives

Shaping strategy and holding relationships with clients and commissioners of employee support and the Resilience and Wellbeing Network

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