Resilience – the super power we all possess!

On 28^th February 2020, the very first case of Covid was reported in Aotearoa. Since then we have been navigating our way through this new environment, and while we have enjoyed a lot of freedoms, we have also bounced in and out of lockdowns along the way.

A key buzzword out of 2020 was Burnout, a result for many of bringing work into our homes which completely blurred the line of work-life integration. Fast forward to today, we are told a dominant emotion of 2021 is Languishing, that feeling of being a little aimless, joyless or stagnant. The daily response of Blah or Meh!

Adam Grant recently dubbed languish as the neglected middle child of mental health, the void between flourishing and depression where you are just not functioning at full capacity. I think it’s important to recognise that while you may not be depressed or burnt out, it doesn’t mean you are not struggling. So how can you bounce back and flourish once again?

Well, this is where a super power called Resilience comes in!

We know there’s no way to avoid challenge throughout our lives and that adversity does not discriminate. Dealing with tough times is part of being human.  However, Covid has kickstarted a world where we experience change, challenge, and setback more frequently and more quickly than ever before.

I used to understand resilience with quite a conventional way of thinking.  It was all about your ‘grit’, a somewhat militant and internal focus. However, I now understand resilience is an ability to learn and grow from setbacks. Our resilience needs are personal, shaped by our personality, history, personal and professional lives. Essentially resilience is a stew.  Lucy Hone refers to it as the capacity to steer through any form of adverse event and learn from it.

To be resilient in our current environment we have to continue to find ways to flex like never before, to respond, recover and thrive.  But the good news is, resilience is something we all possess, and even better, we can train to increase our capacity for it.  Here are some of my top tips for upping your resilience:

1. Micro Reset(s) throughout the workday are important, so pay attention to the peaks and valleys of energy and productivity that we all experience. Taking a micro reset promotes greater energy, mental clarity, creativity and focus, ultimately growing our capacity for resilience throughout the course of the workday.
2. Social Capital comes from connecting with others. In short, resilience is not just something we need to find deep down inside ourselves: we can actually become more resilient in the process of reaching out in our most challenging times. Genuine connection is made up of those tiny interactions that build knowledge, trust and safety so that when we are faced with a problem we have a network of people to go to. People can give you empathy or simply help you laugh. But the outcome is that these interactions help you to shift perspective.
3. Flow is the best predictor of wellbeing. That feeling of being in the zone when time disappears. This isn’t doom scrolling on social media, it is making time to find flow in present life, each day. Although it sounds cheesy, the antidote to languishing and burnout, does not have to be something productive, it can be something joyful. It is about giving yourself uninterrupted time. What fills your cup? Cooking, exercise, reading, gardening.
4. Mental Toughness determines how we manage our thoughts, emotions, energy and productivity. The difference is your mindset. We need to see challenge and adversity as an opportunity and have the confidence and positive approach to take it on in order to nudge our brains back to a positive, productive mindset. When you ‘hunt the good stuff’ it will have a knock-on affect. Have you ever noticed that when you are looking to buy a new car suddenly you start seeing that car everywhere? That’s because consciously or unconsciously, whatever you are focused on you see!
5. A little pressure makes us better, even though the modern world makes us think we should never feel any discomfort. We aren’t at our best with zero stress, we’re actually at the top of our game with a moderate amount. So, while it is tough right now and we are facing a situation that is quite challenging it is also building us up to be more robust, resilient and confident.

In short, there is much we can do to build up our resilience and in doing so face the uncertainty and challenges as they come our way.  Remember, we just need to find ways to practise micro-resets, connect with others and find our flow each day.  It is the small actions, every day, that make a big difference. However little, they all add up.