Resilience: How do we recover and bounce back?

There are many terms thrown around which can either promote our sense of self, or become a hinderance if misused. It seems that over the past few years the catch cry of the day is ‘resilience’ or ‘resiliency’. We refer to people with the ability to bounce back after a set back or hardship as resilient. Take our farming community for example; we refer to our farmers as a resilient bunch as they take their knocks and just get on with the job. Sometimes this is a strength. We know that our farmers are great at overcoming hardships such as natural disasters, inflation, high input with low output, as well as other issues they face like family life, domestic disputes, putting food on the table, bills, health issues, loss of loved ones and so on. For the wider community, we believe our farmers are resilient and therefore we may not identify their need for support, while putting an unrealistic expectation on the farmer to just battle through. For the farmer, they may perceive themselves as not resilient because they are struggling and need a helping hand. It may cause the farmer to not reach out when they need support or it could mean that they leave reaching out too late, resulting in poorer recovery, delayed recovery or a reduction in their mental health.

Let’s start by exploring what is resiliency. The Oxford Dictionary (2023) defines resilience as “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties”. The Mayo Clinic defines resilience as “being able to adapt to life’s misfortunes and setbacks”. Using these definitions of resilience, we can identify our resilience as our inner ability to face what life throws at us, deal with it, and to recover. If we break that down even further, it indicates that we are all going to face trials and hardships in our life at various times. For most of the challenges we face in life, we demonstrate resilience and deal with these hardships and trials. However, occasionally, through no fault of our own, we are going to take a hit and face setbacks that knock us around. It is in these moments of multiple hardships and trauma, or when we experience a big setback, our resilience can really take a hit and be tested.

It is believed that we all have a level of resilience and that we all experience hardship, trauma, and setbacks in life (The Mayo Clinic, 2022; Cummins, 2015). So why is it that some people appear to shake off, move on and even grow stronger following a negative life event? Meanwhile others seem to struggle mentally or emotionally, some even develop psychological disorders like post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), general anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder or substance abuse issues. Evidence shows that people who have stronger social connections and supports are more likely to have an increased level of resilience. Cummins expresses that it’s not the quantity of social connection but rather the quality, stating that connection must be mutually beneficial and not a significant burden to maintain. It is also worth noting that a social network is better made up of a mix of inputs. That is, you can go to one part of your network for light-hearted social interaction, and you can see other friends to work through the hard stuff with and maybe even cry on their shoulder without having to worry about judgement. I have people in my network who will just sit with me and not say or do anything and leave the space open for me to talk when I need to and am ready to.

The other area that is stated to improve a person’s level of resilience is in the individual’s perception of having control or capacity over their choices and life direction (Cummins, 2015; Riopel, 2019). This is not to say that they don’t experience things that are out of their control, such as a flood, or fluctuating stock prices or other people’s behaviours. Rather, it means that the individual can perceive a plan for moving forward and can implement that plan. That plan might be to accept their circumstances with the understanding that it’s not personal and that it’s not a reflection of themselves. They are then able to adapt their strategy to accommodate things out of their control, without losing focus of their goal.

This all sounds great, and we can all hope that we are in a good place when hardship hits, however, the reality is that hardships are coming and are likely to hit us when we are down. Take the last few years for example; farmers have been doing it especially tough. We went from drought, through fires and then floods. One hit after another, and that is only from mother nature. We have also had to deal with the COVID pandemic which has caused a lot of anxiety and isolation to many people. Throw in any number of personal issues that may have also presented over this time, and BAM, we have a perfect storm to test our resilience. It’s no wonder we are seeing so many people doing it tough and not coping. So how do we prepare for the next wave? How can we boost our resilience so that when the next wave does hit, we don’t get washed under? The good news is, there has been a lot of research done in this area and there are some easy to implement practices that improve our level of resilience.

6 easy steps to increase your level of resilience:

Get connected
Build and nurture your social network, take the time to build relationships and develop a strong supportive network. But try not to be selfish- building a social network is a two-way street and you have to give to be able to get.
Make everyday count
Set yourself some goals to achieve things that are meaningful to you. Achieving a goal is a great way to foster a feeling of control and capacity within your life. Don’t get tricked into thinking that you have to control everything. Identify what is in your control and work on those things. Learn to accept that you don’t have control over some things.
Learn from history, don’t live in it
Try to remember when you went through some hardships and how you managed to overcome them. Because, let’s face it, you are still here so you obviously got through it. What worked and what didn’t? How can you adapt the things that worked to apply to this situation?
Hold onto hope
This is where not living in the past holds the most weight. Look to the future, understand that everything changes. Accepting this can help you to adapt your strategy to achieving your vision or goal (even if the vision or goal changes because of it).
Look after yourself
Ensuring that you’re in the best health that you can be is key to enabling you to cope with hardship when it hits. Eat well, get enough exercise, prioritise rest and manage good sleep patterns, and avoid excessive alcohol or substance misuse. Keeping all of these in balance in the right proportions will give you the best chance at remaining healthy.
Be proactive
Simply put, if you know something is coming, do whatever is in your power to prepare. Fire season is coming – prepare your property, cut grass, clean the gutters. Expecting bad storms? Stow loose equipment, move stock off low grounds, stock up on supplies. The next year is forecast to be drier than normal – stock up on hay, buy silage. Prepare, prepare, prepare. The more prepared you are, the more the impact will be reduced. There is, of course, always an exception, like when we don’t have enough warning, or when flood waters move too fast.

We all have a level of resilience. The greater the level of resilience, the better we can cope with life’s hardships, setbacks, and disasters. We may be able to cope with certain issues in certain ways, while others appear to be coping much better or worse. This is not a reflection on any individual, as we don’t know what someone else is going through. While we all have different levels of resilience, it is possible for us as individuals to follow the above tips to improve our resilience.

If you are doing it a bit tough, your resilience is being tested and you feel that you need an independent and confidential person to help support you through this period, you can always reach out to the Rural Aid’s Counselling Intake line on 1300 17 55 94 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm AEST)

“Demonstrating resiliency doesn’t necessarily mean that you have not suffered difficulty or distress. It also doesn’t mean you have not experienced emotional pain or sadness. The road to resilience is often paved with emotional stress and strain.” Riopel (2019)

References
Cummins, D. (2015). Why some people are more resilient than others. Psychology Today. Available online: Why Some People Are More Resilient Than Others | Psychology Today
Pearsall, J., & Hanks, Patrick. (1998). The new Oxford dictionary of English. Clarendon Press.
Riopel, L. (2019). Resilience Examples: What Key Skills Make You Resilient? PositivePsychology.com. Available online: Resilience Examples: What Key Skills Make You Resilient? (positivepsychology.com)
The Mayo Clinic Staff. (2022). Resilience: Build skills to endure hardship. The Mayo Clinic. Available online: Resilience: Build skills to endure hardship – Mayo Clinic