Wednesday, 10 March 2021

Resilience in the age of global crises: How can we cultivate it?

 It is time we talked about the R-word: resilience. So many articles, memes, songs, and podcasts talk about how to be resilient and see ourselves through tough times. But what does it really mean to be resilient, and how useful is this concept still?

“Can’t you see? Life’s easy if you look at things from another point of view.”

Many readers will be familiar with these iconic lyrics from the DB Boulevard song “Point of view.”

This song describes what many people understand through resilience: the ability to consider negative events “from another point of view,” one that allows them to construct a different, positive narrative.

Another way of understanding resilience might be through the phrase “grin and bear it” — going through negative life experiences by subduing “unwanted” emotions of anger, sadness, or hopelessness.

How useful is each of these takes on resilience, though, and does either of them fully explain what psychological resilience is?

To better understand this ability and how useful the notion of resilience still is in a world of global and individual crises, Medical News Today have spoken to three experts.

Dr. Mark Hoelterhoff — lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom — is a counseling psychologist with expertise in positive psychology and a research interest in psychological capital.

Tania Diggory is a business neurolinguistic programming practitioner and mental health trainer. She is also the founder and director of Calmer, a company providing mental health and well-being training courses for businesses and professionals.

Dr. Tim Lomas is a former lecturer in positive psychology at the University of East London in the U.K., author of The Positive Power of Negative Emotions, and currently a researcher at the Wellbeing for Planet Earth foundation.

Source: Medical News Today

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