YOUTH

Building resilience

Resilience is a term bandied around a lot these days and rightly so in a world experiencing weather events, wars, negative news and economic turbulence. The definition of resilience is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness”. It is such a handy skill to develop to cope with life’s ups and downs and it is not only applicable to traumatic events.

There are some simple life practices that help build resilience in adults and children. These include knowing your strengths and asking for help if you need support, understanding that no one is good at everything and that it is human nature to feel out of your depth sometimes. Build a support network of friends and family around you so when you need to ask for assistance you know exactly who to turn to. Develop coping strategies before they are required. These may be as simple as mindfulness exercises to calm yourself or clear negative thoughts so you can focus on solutions.

If something is going awry, stick to the facts. Look at what you actually know, what really happened and what your true options are. Catastrophising or imagining what may go wrong or what could have gone wrong only adds to anxiety and stress and clouds your ability to make good decisions.

The best advice I found while researching resilience is to be prepared in advance. Do one little thing daily that strengthens your self-esteem, learn from your experiences and take care of yourself mentally, physically and emotionally (adapted from the Mayo Clinic). As we do this for ourselves, we model it for the next generation. Robyn Simpson choosethetude.com