Building resilience to survive. Resilience no matter the time period, is something that we need and is one of the driving forces behind our evolution. It is needed during times of war, strife, pandemics and personal setbacks. How does one go about developing resilience?
Let’s start with lifestyle and health.
Your lifestyle and health are the key factors to your resilience. So ensure that you’re in your physical optimal state by getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating healthy. As being in optimal physical state directly helps in achieving an optimal mental state.
Build elements in your lifestyle that contribute to a relaxed mental state. Try meditating or various others relaxation techniques. Find and/or develop hobbies that are totally different than what you do during your regular routine. This enables you to have a distraction from anything that might be stressing you in your regular routine and as a bonus you might get new insights that can help you tackle the source of the stress.
Bring balance to the things you do. Maybe you have a taxing job, a busy social calendar, and/or kids at home. Take inventory of the that which drains energy and that which gives it, in order to truly be able to create the balance needed.
Take a break!
In a world where everything needs to be done yesterday. In a world filled with goal setting, timelines and (self-imposed) expectations. Give yourself a mental break.
Here are some ways to do just that:
- A change of scenery: simply going outside for a walk, working from another location or even going to a friend’s house
- Give yourself a holiday/time off. And don’t be afraid to make it some genuine ‘me time’ just you and your thoughts and doing what you want to.
- Reward yourself! Rewarding yourself can be done with little actions. Like treating yourself to a nice dessert after you have successfully completed a difficult task/assignment or simply congratulating yourself.
- Create a music playlist focussed on providing you with relaxation or a positive feel.
- Create a positive social media feed. For example create a separate Instagram account where you only follow accounts focussed on positivity and nature
Build up a support network!
A lot of us try to fix everything ourselves, but greatest things are built by a team. Do your best to gather positive influences around you as these influences in essence will be your team. Feel free to compartmentalise your ‘teams’. For example a team which supports you in personal life decisions, a team which helps you on work related matters or any other topics that come to mind. Make sure that whomever you regard as a teammate whether it be, family, friends, co-workers or even a coach is someone who positively supports you, gives you feed forward and also challenges you constructively. Expand your network and nurture it, just as they help with your resilience, you also help with theirs. Remember helping others also helps you, as we get a sense of fulfilment when helping others
Make sure to apply above tips in combination. Only eating healthy or creating a positive social media feed, is not going to win you the war. But compounding all the methods will definitely help you build the ultimate resilience tank.
