Resilience – 5 dimensions for your wellness ‘bank account’
The concept
Resilience is…an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change; the capacity to withstand stress + catastrophe (the ability to ‘bounce back’); an ability to recover from, respond constructively or adjust easily to misfortune, challenges, stressors or change; an ability to learn from those experiences – building stronger capacity.
Resilience is a skill – not purely an in-built trait … It is a capacity that involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that can be learned. So everyone has the potential to improve their resilience!
Studies into resilient people highlight commitment to practices across 5 core dimensions. Actively focusing attention on elements within each of these 5 dimensions helps inoculate people when situations cause this resilience may be shaken.
Why it’s useful
Deliberate focus on these 5 dimensions is like putting a deposit into a bank. Like all bank accounts, the ‘Resilience Bank account’ needs to have money coming in so it can cover the times when a withdrawal occurs. If we only have 1-2 sources for deposits, we are left vulnerable. It is therefore good practice to have as many sources of resilience as possible! If one source dries up, there can be others available to buffer the loss and give you time to recover.
How/when to apply it
Our Resilience model outlines a range of ideas and practices resilience people do – offering 5 sources for the ‘Resilience Bank account’. Many strategies seem simple and obvious. But the REAL challenge lies in recognising when you need to use them and being able to do so in spite of the stress or challenge
- Read through the practices in each of the 5 dimensions of resilience.
- Select 1-2 ideas that resonate.
- Identify how you can put these into practice and write them down in an action plan.
- Consider sharing this action plan with a trusted person, who can help to help keep you accountable to the practices
- Make a time with yourself at the end of the week / month to how you have gone with you actions. An adaptation of the ‘Daily Questions’ template might be a good way to record your progress. Celebrate your progress with building new habits
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