Building Emotional Resilience
Simply put, emotional resilience refers to one’s ability to cope with stress, anxiety, trauma, disappointments and tragedies in a constructive, healthy way. Whether due to the loss of a loved one, layoff from a job, loss of money in the stock market, an unfavorable diagnosis from your physician, or physical injury or illness, the ability to cope with difficulties allows us to continue on without major disruptions to our daily routine.
How do we build emotional resilience?
In many instances resilience can be built simply by facing failure. For example, a career in the sciences may put one in direct contact with failure in a way that is difficult to deny, ignore, or wish away. That a scientist will commit an error in some part of some process during research, particularly early in his or her career, is inevitable. Also consider the fact that most experiments and hypotheses fail. Overcoming adversity is baked into the profession. Over time, one learns to make attitudinal adjustments in order not to to get stuck in fight-or-flight syndrome and become paralyzed with indecision. This is something we can all learn to do.
Another way to build emotional resilience is to practice mindfulness meditation, which, coupled with aerobic exercise, has been found to reduce anxiety, depression, stress, and rumination by as much as 40%. In addition, some practitioners might maintain a trauma journal that chronicles emotional upheavals occurring in their lives; this may aid in allowing the pre-frontal cortex to take back control from the “reptile brain.”
The power of reframing
Set aside some time to list some negative thoughts you might be experiencing. Start by making a list of three negative thoughts, and come up with ways to reframe them positively. Here are some examples:
1. This hardship will never pass.
I have seen worse times pass.
2. I am losing hold of life.
I can get back control.
3. I can never move on.
Maybe I should give it some time.
Resilience through gratitude
As an emotion, gratitude is one of the most powerful that we are capable of developing. When we learn to appreciate what we have, rather than complaining about what we don’t have or what we have lost, we are already more resilient than we were before. Gratitude is about stopping, looking, and going forward. A lack of gratitude stops us from moving forward and reduces our ability to rebound from a mishap or tragedy.
We can keep a gratitude journal where we list everything that we are thankful for, even in times of stress. The journal can remind us of all the good times we have experienced in life. By being thankful we may find that it provides room for us to receive more.
Practicing assertiveness, relaxing and breathing, cultivating hobbies, and finding balance are also ways to develop emotional resilience. The benefit of emotional resilience is that we can live a fuller life, fulfill our potential personally and professionally, be more productive on our jobs, experience satisfying relationships and reduce the negative impact of stress in our lives.
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