Resilience Is Key To Bouncing Back From Life's Challenges
A person’s overall psychological well-being is referred to as their mental or emotional health. How you feel about yourself and your relationships are factors that will determine how emotionally healthy you are. Another key factor in determining emotional health is resilience. In other words, how well do you cope with change, setbacks, and other life challenges? If you don’t cope with these facts of life well, don’t worry; Just as it is possible to improve your physicalhealth, it is also possible to significantly improve your emotional health. All it takes is practice.First, let’s explore what resilience means. You may notice that, when setbacks or disasters occurs, some people thrive while other people crumble. People with a strong sense of resilience are able to access their inner strength in order to recover from setbacks in life. People who have yet to tap into their inner strength may dwell on life’s setbacks, feel overwhelmed, and feel victimized. In many cases, people who lack resilience will turn to coping mechanisms that are unhealthy and addictive, such as substance or drug abuse.
The Benefits of Finding Your Inner Resilience
Becoming a more resilient individual does not mean that you will no longer experience problems in life. However, by developing greater resilience, you will find that your overall emotional health improves, which can lead to a host of life-altering benefits. Developing improved coping skills will ensure that you handle stress better, adapt to adversity quicker, and are able to live a more fulfilling life as a result. Resilience is also very important for protecting against mental health problems such as depression or chronic anxiety.
How to Boost Your Resilience
Now that you know how improved psychological resilience will boost your mental health, you’re probably wondering how to gain a greater sense of resilience so that you are better able to face life’s challenges.To begin, let’s take a look at how you view a challenging situation. This component of resilience is known as “appraisal.” How you appraise a situation will determine what effects it has on your life. If you are presented with a challenging situation, do you see it as a challenge or a threat? If the situation is seen as a challenge, you are much more likely to feel calm and relaxed. Depending on the situation, you may even view it as an exciting challenge that has the potential to help you grow as a person and to take your life in a more invigorating direction.On the other hand, if you see a challenging situation as a threat, you are likely to feel scared, anxious, reactive, and panicked. The fear response can cause your brain’s fear center to go into overdrive, and to release stress hormones that further increase your feelings of anxiety.There are several things that you can do to improve your resilience and emotional health. It is important to take care of both your physical and emotional health by getting regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, achieving restful sleep, and practicing stress management techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, and yoga. It is equally important to build positive relationships so that you have a support system. Living a more rewarding life by doing something every day that gives your life meaning is also very helpful.Most importantly, remember that we can all change and improve our mental well-being. Learn from your experiences by determining what coping strategies have worked for you in the past and which ones have only made the problem worse. Stay proactive in caring for your emotional health by not ignoring your problems, but by actively working on improving your ability to deal with challenges in life. Taking care of yourself, believing that you can make positive changes, and then staying active in making changes over time will go a long way in improving your overall emotional well-being.
Valerie Johnston is a health and fitness writer located in East Texas. With ambitions of one day running a marathon and writing for Healthline.com ensures she keeps up-to-date on all of the latest health and fitness news.