Thrive Beyond Stress
Stress is an unavoidable part of life. Every day, we are challenged to find creative solutions to overcome difficulties like the new social distancing rules. Also, let’s not forget about the “no-big-deal” arguments that we tend to get into with family and friends. To rise to the challenge, we need to develop resilience skills and strengthen our mental muscles.
Researchers define resilience in various different ways. Biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors all play a role in determining an individual’s capacity for resilience. It is not always possible to adapt to difficult circumstances in every aspect of life. For instance, you might find that you are better at handling work stress than relational stress. Our ability to practice resilience varies depending on the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
Resilience is a complex construct that exists on a continuum. An interdisciplinary group of experts including Dr. Steven Southwick from Yale University describes resilience as the capacity of individuals, families, organizations, and societies to adapt to stressful life events and to intentionally work towards maintaining wellbeing. In essence, resilience is a skill that anyone can learn to minimize the adverse effects of stress and to prevent potential burnout.
What does resilience look like?
Studies have found that there are certain behavioral and cognitive factors that are associated with resilience. In Stress Resilience: Molecular and Behavioral Aspects, Dr. Brian Iacoviello and Assistant Professor Dennis Charney from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai discuss psychosocial factors like optimism, cognitive flexibility, and social support. These psychosocial factors are thought to play a big role in the extent to which an individual is resilient.
In 2010, Professor Charles Carver from University of Miami and colleagues published an article discussing optimism. According to the researchers, optimistic individuals tend to respond to difficulties better than pessimists. In general, optimists hold positive beliefs about the future and use effective coping strategies to deal with stressful life events. For instance, in 1993 Professor Carver and colleagues investigated how breast cancer patients coped with treatment. They found that optimism was associated with less distress after surgery. While pessimism was related to denial of the situation, optimism was associated with acceptance and reframing the distressing situation in a positive light.
Iacoviello and Charney suggest that cognitive flexibility goes hand in hand with optimism. Cognitive flexibility is about creating a little bit of mental space to reevaluate one’s perceptions and thoughts about a situation. For example, a painful breakup can lead anyone down a road of chaos. Optimism can help us hope for the future even in the depths of pain while cognitive flexibility allows us to reframe our thoughts and reassess our relationship values. In essence, reappraisals help us move forward without getting caught up in self-limiting thoughts and behaviors.
Our social connections also help us thrive. The ability to seek and receive help from others is a critical part of building resilience. According to Iacoviello and Charney, close relationships can help us become emotionally strong.
The author of The Emotional Toolkit, Dr. Darlene Mininni shares in a lecture as part of the Frank B. Roehr Memorial Lecture Series at the University of California that people with strong social ties live longer than people who do not have strong connections. In fact, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University suggests that being isolated is similar to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Studies done by researchers like Professor Shelley Taylor from the University of California have also shown that social connections actually kick the parasympathetic nervous system into gear, reducing cortisol and helping our minds to calm down.
The studies mentioned above all show that resilience comes in many shapes and forms. Optimism, cognitive reframing and social connections are a big part of building resilience to not only survive but to thrive.
To get started, focus on one skill and see where it takes you!
REFERENCES
- 1. Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter-Brick, C., & Yehuda, R. (2014). Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: Interdisciplinary perspectives. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5, 10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338
- 2. Iacoviello, B., & Charney, D. (2020). ‘Cognitive and behavioral components of resilience to stress’, in Chen, A. (ed.) Stress Resilience: Molecular and Behavioral Aspects. Science Direct, pp. 23-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813983-7.00002-1
- 3. Carver, C.S., Scheier, M.F., & Segerstrom, S.C. (2010). Optimism. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 879-889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.006
- 4. Carver, C. S., Pozo, C., Harris, S. D., Noriega, V., Scheier, M. F., Robinson, D. S., Ketcham, A. S., Moffat, F. L., Jr, & Clark, K. C. (1993). How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress: A study of women with early stage breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(2), 375–390. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.65.2.375
- 5. Novotney, A. (2020, March). The risks of social isolation. Monitor on Psychology, 50(5). http://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation
- 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptuvg8mnUic