More resilient people are able to "roll with the punches" and adapt to adversity without lasting difficulties; less resilient people have a harder time with stress and life changes, both major and minor. Resilience 10 Traits of Emotionally Resilient People Part 1 of 2 in this blog series, “Cultivating Resilience for Total Well-Being" Posted May 21, 2013 We are social creatures (Aristotle) and being surrounded by people gives us the strength to overcome problems, endure them, and evolve from them. One email, every Friday. 10 Ways to Boost Your Emotional Resilience, Backed by Research. Professor Michael Rutter, a child psychiatrist based in London, who has been devotedly researching on resiliency theory since the 1970s stated that: Norman Garmezy, a research pioneer and a clinical psychologist at the University of Minnesota, laid his empirical findings on the theory of emotional resilience in 1991. This is what the most resilient people do. As Dale Carnegie said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”, (To learn how Special Forces soldiers overcome adversity, click here.). That’s okay. They keep growing their mind, learning to learn, and adapting to new information about the world. Rate each statement from 0 to 5 where ‘0’ means ‘Strongly Disagree’ and ‘5’ means ‘Strongly Agree’. But what’s more interesting is that they’re not talking about delusional, pollyanna-style, rose-colored glasses here. Keep the flag flying, This is a very painstakingly researched and wonderfully presented article. Are You in Control of Your Destiny, or Are You at the Mercy of Chance? We become more sensitive, over-reactive, and emotionally unbalanced. Some examples of thought replacement are shown in the table below: Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions that we are capable of developing. While many HSPs, myself included, love their routines and struggle with uncertainty or a sudden change of plans, flexibility is a key tool when building resilience: The phrase “play it by ear” makes our skin crawl! . All rights reserved. 1. Fret not as, fortunately, resilience can be cultivated and, in this piece, we are going to look at five approaches you can take to build your emotional resilience. The psychobiology of depression and resilience to stress: implications for prevention and treatment. However, this book on building emotional resilience, as most agree, is his greatest contribution to the field of mental health so far. In a broad way, emotional resilience means bouncing back from a stressful encounter and not letting it affect our internal motivation. (Marano, 2003). Recognizing the fact that our thoughts influence our actions, Acknowledging stress and be willing to effectively cope with it, Being open to changes and flexible while adapting to new situations, Accepting the truth that by changing the way we react to stress, a lot of difference can be made, Embracing the self by building self-compassion and empathy, Developing and practicing empathy in everyday life – at work and at home, Reading and understanding social cues – embedded in both verbal and nonverbal communications, Keep a daily schedule where we can note down our assignments for the day and act according to the plan, Maintain a priority list and see where our kids, partners, work, parents, personal care, and social life comes in it, Come back and rebuild our priorities as often as we need to, Commit to devote some quality time to the ones high on the priority list. Good advice but what do we need to develop deep down to overcome life’s biggest obstacles? Get a free weekly update via email here. In our current climate, resiliency might look like being able to adapt to the current “stay at home” orders by putting systems in place that allow life (work, food shopping, etc.) People with higher levels of emotional and self-control can redirect themselves and manipulate their feelings. People who are resilient tend to be flexible – flexible in the way they think about challenges and flexible in the way they react emotionally to stress. (Fredrickson, 1998). The more aware and accepting of your sensitivity that you are, the more likely you’ll handle challenges that come your way.