There resilience It is a construct transversal to many areas. We talk about resilience in engineering and metallurgy, meaning the ability of a material to resist impacts without breaking, therefore to preserve its structure or to regain the original form after being undergone crushing or deformation; we talk about resilience In computer science, referring to a system that continues to work, despite some anomalies. Even in biology, we speak of resilient organisms, capable of replying after suffering damage.
In psychology, however, the resilience He defines people’s ability to be able to face stressful or traumatic events and to positively reorganize his life in the face of difficulties. In practice, the resilient person is the one who manages not to be overwhelmed by events but who manages to make sense of what happens and find the resources to go on.
Have good resilience In fact, it does not only mean knowing how to oppose the pressure of the environment, but implies a ability to move forward, despite the crises and allows the reconstruction of a life path. The resilient individual is not the one who ignores or denies difficulties and even minimizes them. On the contrary, he is the one who manages to transform the negative event into a source of learning, understood as the ability to acquire useful skills to improve his quality of life and continue in his own path of growth and realization.
In practice, the resilience He teaches us to consider difficulties as an opportunity. Those who own a high level of resilience They manage to face adversity effectively, to give new impetus to their existence and even reach important destinations.
Since ancient times, men have distinguished themselves from animals for the innate ability to resist various natural disasters to wars and famines. Avoid defeats, disappointments, conflicts is impossible.
‘Investigation on Resilience processes It originally developed in the psychopathological field, at the end of the Second World War with the intent to identify the resources that allow some individuals to maintain a good psychological adaptation in the face of the numerous cases of post -traumatic stress disorders and other forms of pathology found in the veterans.
Subsequently, the studies on resilience They continued in the field of evolutionary age psychology with the aim of exploring the different trajectories of development of subjects passed for evolutionary experiences marked by traumatic events.
One of the first Resilience studies It was conducted in 1992 by the group of the University of Davis (California), led by Emma Werner on 698 babies of the Kauai Island (Hawai). Many of them had a high probability of developing problems, due to several risk factors: complications at birth, poverty, living in families with alcoholism problems, mental illnesses, violence, quarrels. However, the results highlighted that, at the age of 18, while 2/3 of the boys had many inconveniences, about 1/3 of them had grown adequately, starting stable relationships, carrying out work activities and had become subjects who took every opportunity to improve themselves.
The Werner group highlighted how to have received from significant people an unconditional acceptance and having been able to attribute meaning and meaning to life had made these individuals more immune to the stressful they had undergone, promoting a resilience process.
It is possible to identify five components that contribute to develop resilience:
1. Optimism: It is the disposition that grasps the good side of things, the tendency to expect a future full of positive occasions, the propensity to diminish the difficulties of life, always trying to keep more lucidity to find solutions to problems. The optimistic subject, unlike the pessimist, interprets difficulties as transitory, and not permanent; as circumscribed, and not pervasive to all areas of life; Finally, as not only dependent on its responsibility, but as the result of the competition of multiple variables, some of which outside its control.
2. Self -esteem: A high self -esteem protects from feelings of anxiety and depression and positively influences the state of physical health. Having a low self -consideration and being very self -critical, in fact, leads to a lesser tolerance of the criticisms of others, which is associated with a greater share of pain, increasing the possibility of developing depressive symptoms.
3. Hardiness (psychological robustness): It is a trait of personality that includes three dimensions: commitment, control and taste for challenges. By commitment, the tendency to get involved in the activities is intended. The person with this trait is busy, is active, is not frightened by fatigue; does not easily abandon the field; He is careful and vigilant, but not anxious; evaluate the difficulties realistically. Because there is commitment it is necessary to have objectives, something to achieve, so fighting and in which to believe. By control we mean the belief that you can dominate in some way what you do or the initiatives that are taken, that is, the belief of not being at the mercy of events. The expression taste for challenges refers to the disposition to accept the changes. The person with this trait sees the positive aspects of the transformations and minimizes the negative ones. The change is experienced more as an incentive to grow than as difficulties to avoid at all costs and challenges are considered stimulating rather than threatening. The person is generally open and flexible.
4. Positive emotions: That is to focus on what you have instead of what we are missing.
5. Social support: ability to build heterogeneous and multiple relationships that can support the individual in difficult moments. This type of relationship creates an atmosphere of love and trust and provides encouragement and reassurance thus favoring the growth of the level of resilience. It is important to underline how the presence of people available to listen is effective as it mobilizes the story of their difficulties. Telling is to get rid of the weight of suffering and the reception by others will mark the transition from an all inner story to the participatory sharing of the incident.
Ultimately, what determines the quality of resilience It is the quality of personal resources and ties that have been created before and after the traumatic event.
One of the most important factors to be promoted in a resilience process It is high tolerance to frustration, or the ability to delay the gratification of the present moment to pursue and persevere in achieving one’s objectives. These must be specific, gradual and realistic, in order to be challenging, but not excessive. The ability to tolerate frustration also allows you to metabolize inconvenience, defeats and efforts.
There resilience It is learned with experience; It is not an innate and immutable quality and anyone can develop and learn to improve starting from their difficulties. It is necessary to start with becoming aware of your limits and potential, to then learn to use the latter in support of the former.
Have a high level of resilience It does not mean not experimenting at all the difficulties or stress of life, it means having the resources to be able to face them without being overwhelmed by the events themselves. Have a high level of resilience It does not mean being infallible but willing to change when necessary; willing to think they can be wrong. There resilience It is given by the interaction between what I have (external resources), what I am (inner forces) and what I can do.
A way to implement resilience It is approaching the practice of mindfulness, and specifically developing the ability to decentralize themselves from one’s thoughts, considering them for what they are, or content of the mind. The intentional and non -judgmental acceptance of the here and now allows, on the one hand, to purify the cognitive evaluation from errors and distortions, on the other, it facilitates the management of stress.
The attitude to accept unpleasant feelings, to observe thoughts and sensations, without reacting to them, is one of the ways to build and strengthen the resilience process. Resilient is the one who distinguishes what he can and cannot change and, in the latter case, is however aware of being able to change his interpretation of events; there resilience In fact, it is largely the result of the so the individual conceptualize and explain the events that happen and what can be perceived able to affect them.
Who has one good resilience He lives the negative and painful emotions with acceptance, welcoming them, without depriving himself at the same time of the possibility of experiencing even the most positive emotions. The resilient person is able to find meanings in the adversities of life, which is very important for overcoming trauma and negative events.
In conclusion, to become resilient people, it is important to be optimistic and find the positive side in things; Alongside the optimism, then, there must be a high level of self -esteem. Obviously, it is also important to have environmental control, engage in every action and be ready to manage changes as challenges to win. We must, then focus on the things you have and not on those that are missing instead. Finally, it is essential to be loved and estimated by others; Telling yourself helps to lighten and manage pain. However, it is appropriate to take into account the fact that it is not resilient to the bitter end.
We know that there are many situations from which the person, however efforts, cannot get out, losing confidence in his ability to do it, not seeing a solution to his problems. In these moments it can be of help to undertake a psychotherapy work because basically the ultimate purpose of a psychological path is to help the person to be more resilient.
A good psychological path allows you to bring out the resources blocked, helping the person to develop new points of view on the situation and to acquire greater competence regarding their own schemes of thought and emotions.
