Personal Growth
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Five evidence-based strategies to help you cultivate resilience.
No matter where we live in the world now, we are immersed in uncertainty and change. At the same time, we are each facing our own particular hardships due to the pandemic. Our Sages teach us that our struggles are designed especially for us. No test is more than we can handle, yet each one still has the potential to bring out an improved version of ourselves. With this in mind, how can we utilize these challenging times to uplift us rather than bring us down?
Our resilience is key to successfully navigating through this difficult period as well as any other that life presents us. Resilience is an essential set of skills, enabling us to transform setbacks into new opportunities. Similar to building a muscle, resilience takes time to develop.
Here are five evidence-based strategies which may help you to cultivate resilience during the pandemic. There is no single optimal path to resilience. Different strategies work for different people at different times. Try these and see which one(s) work best for you.
Develop a positive mindset. Studies find that people with optimistic beliefs are healthier, experience less stress, and are better at coping with adversity.1 Even pessimistic people can learn to have a positive and optimistic outlook on life.2 In the Mishna, the ability to develop a positive outlook is referred to as an ayin tova, which literally means ‘a good eye’. The significance of ayin tova means we can train ourselves to see the good. During the pandemic, a positive outlook is especially important to bolster our health and wellbeing.
One way we can encourage positive thinking is through positive reframing, which involves a deliberate choice to view a difficult situation in an optimistic light. Here is a sequence of five steps (called ABCDE) to positively reframe a stressful situation.3 It is most helpful to write these steps down.
Be self-compassionate. Self-compassion involves being kind to yourself and accepting yourself as imperfect. 4 Self-compassion focuses on our intrinsic worth as a human being and emphasizes inner strength and personal growth. Right now, when we are dealing with such fast-paced changes, it is important to manage self-expectations to reduce stress.
We can encourage self-compassion through self-talk. We have a constant dialogue running in our minds all day long. Have you ever listened to yours? Do you doubt and criticize your actions? If so, replace self-criticism with positive self-talk. Here are a few strategies that may help.
Don’t forget to laugh. Laughter is often seen as the best medicine. Laughter makes us feel happy, reduces our anxiety, and connects us with others, all of which positively influences our resilience.5 During difficult times, laughter can often be in short supply. If you can’t laugh naturally, you can self-induce laughter. Whether genuine or not, laughter still has benefits!
Here are a few laughter exercises that will hopefully bring a smile to your face.6 These are fun to do with another person, especially children (laughter is contagious, after all). Do your best to act happy, move around energetically, and focus on the moment.
Build Social Connections. Feeling connected to, and supported by, others improves our ability to cope effectively with challenges and reduces the harmful effects of our brain’s neurochemical responses to stress.7 During the pandemic, many of us are physically isolated from family and friends. Here are a few ways to boost your social connection to others.
Reflect and (re)assess. Being flexible and adaptive to new circumstances are important for resilience. We have now experienced many months of COVID-19, which offers us the opportunity to reflect on what is working and what is not. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is a framework for implementing small but effective changes in your life. Here are the steps involved in the cycle. As with the ABCDE exercise, it's most helpful to write these steps down.
Resilience is not an end state but a continuous work in progress. No one feels resilient at all times and in all situations. No matter what we face, however, we all have the capacity for resilience. Our Creator has given us everything we need in order to withstand whatever life presents us.