Resilience

In life, it is guaranteed there will be moments that cause us a lot of pain or difficulty. These pains and difficulties can be physical, mental, emotional, or something else entirely! All of these experiences are part of being human, but how we care for ourselves will impact our ability to recover from these events.

Our ability to bounce back after painful or difficult experiences is called resilience. Resilience is an important part of mental health. Without the skills to be resilient, it makes it harder to get better after something difficult. Everyone has their own strengths and skills that help them cope with, or deal with, hard things. Because everyone is different, these strengths and skills are different for each person. Something that helps one person be resilient may not be helpful for you to be resilient. This is why it is important to learn a lot of different skills and find what works best for you.

Utah Public Radio has a series called “Project Resilience” that is meant to help people learn how to be more resilient and cope with hard things. As part of this project, they have stories of resilience in Utah communities, and tips to help individuals and communities learn to become more resilient. These tips include recommendations for specific skills and activities that support self-care, health, and connection. These skills help people navigate how they are feeling and get back on their feet when something is difficult or build up their preparedness for a potentially stressful event. Remember, not every tip will be right for you. There are a lot of ways to be resilient, so do some searching to see what works for you!

Even though these tips and tricks can help people become resilient, it doesn’t mean that what you are facing will be easier. What you are experiencing will still probably be really hard, but you will have the skills to work hard and bounce back from the hard situation.

There are going to be times that you will struggle to bounce back from something hard and your friends or family will be there to help you. There may also be times that you are able to bounce back better than a friend or family member and you will need to help them. When it comes to mental health, we all have to help each other. The important thing to remember when we help each other is that if your mental health isn’t good, it makes it very hard to help others. Sometimes you have to make sure that you are taking care of your own well-being, before you can effectively help other people.

UPR’s Project Resilience home page: https://www.upr.org/programs/project-resilience-becoming-resilient-overcoming-resistance

UPR’s Project Resilience Tips: https://www.upr.org/post/uprs-project-resilience-tips