Becoming More Resilient

Wanna know how to become more resilient? Well, first off, let’s think about what resilience actually is. Resilience is your ability to tackle – and bounce back from – tough situations. It’s something that you can practise, and you’ll get better at it, the more you do it. 

And the truth is, that it sometimes takes going through a difficult time, or at least being outside of your comfort zone to become truly resilient. But there are a few small, simple things that you can do on a regular basis to help become more resilient. 

These are just 4 ideas to get you started, but if you wanted to dive a bit deeper into things you can do to become more resilient, take a look at our resilience online courses!

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Practice gratitude!

If you want to become more resilient, gratitude is a super duper useful tool. Ultimately, gratitude is all about feeling thankful & appreciative. That could be for the people around you, the stuff you have, or the fact that you made it through another day. Or really just.. anything that you’re grateful for!

A few years back, I took part in the 100 Happy Days challenge. The idea being to share a picture on Instagram every day for 100 days in a row of something that made me happy. Some days that was super easy. Other days I had to dig really deep to find something that was good about a train wreck of a day. But it was that process of actively looking for something good, however small, about every single day that changed my mindset. 

If you don’t want to be quite so public with it, just taking a bit of time to write it down in a journal each night before bed can be mega helpful! 

If you’re looking for something to help guide you through reflecting on each day, you might like The Positive Planner!

Check out the Positive Planner!

Get your body moving!

We’ve done a whole video on the idea of building up your physical resilience. Give it a watch below! But just to summarise: Your body naturally responds to stress. It makes you want to either run away from the stressful thing or fight it. So allowing yourself to do something physical with all the energy your body naturally produces is gonna help you feel a bit more like you’ve dealt with the stressful things in your life.

Surround yourself with good people!

Good advice in general. And especially when looking to become more resilient. We’re always stronger when we’re working together. See, we’ve all got our own strengths and weaknesses. And we’ve all got our roles to play. On a small scale, that could be you and your friends being there to help each other with challenges like revising during a stressful exam season. On a much larger scale, a whole country full of people working together are going to be much more resilient in the face of big challenges like a global pandemic. 

It’s important to have someone you can turn to if you’re struggling. They can pick you up when you’re feeling down. And you can be there to pick them up when they’re feeling down. Or if you’re all feeling down at the same time, you can lean on each other, and just be there. 

This is also a good time to practise gratitude! Let the people around you know how much you appreciate them! Big them up! Celebrate each other’s wins!

Have a laugh!

I get it. Sometimes when you’re at your lowest moments, someone telling you to just “have a laugh” doesn’t seem like the most helpful piece of advice. But it’s what helped Steve (you can read his story here!) and it’s what helps people like Navy SEALs to deal with some of the most stressful situations imaginable. 

I guess it’s kinda similar to practising gratitude. Because sometimes you’ve got to go looking for the funny things. Sometimes it’s about knowing you’ve got a TV show, or a film that always makes you laugh. Or maybe it’s about knowing you’ve got a pal who can make you laugh by just talking rubbish with them. (Hey, there’s a reason I just told you to surround yourself with good people up there!) It won’t necessarily solve your problems, but it can be a good distraction, and help you cope a little better. 

So that’s just a few ideas on how to become more resilient! These are your very basic building blocks, but if you want to get more tips and practical ideas on resilience, and general wellbeing, then check out our online courses!

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