What is Resilience?

What makes one person more resilient than another?

Dr Eric Nestler – not a passive process but an activation

Greater activation in the left prefrontal cortex of the brain

Dr Davidson (2012) - increase in white matter lying between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, the more resilient you are

Also by turning down the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex can quiet signals associated with negative emotions

Adapting

“Bouncing Back”

Problem Focused Coping

Alters the environment to reduce stress and generally employed when the situation is perceived as controllable

How: taking control, information seeking, evaluating pros & cons

Emotion Focused Coping

Oriented towards managing emotions that accompany the perception of stress

How: releasing pent-up emotions, distracting oneself, managing hostile feelings, using relaxation procedures

Dysfunctional Coping

(Folkman & Lazarus)

Coping Strategies

Emotion Focused Coping

– Distracting / Avoidance

Includes behaviours that reduce stress by distancing oneself from the problem

The individual “forgets” or distracts oneself from dealing with the problem

How:

Sleep On It

Visual Disassociation

Stepping away from the problem cognitively

Use of Reframing

Looking at a situation from a different

perspective

Emotion Focused Coping – Self Awareness

The ability to observe your own behaviour and identify and check

for early warning signs of stress

Low self-awareness means you

are at risk of your emotions and body signals overwhelming you

Emotion Focused Coping

– Relaxation

Control of your breathing

Helps exercise self-control which is a coping strategy

Puts you in control of managing your physiological response to stress

Problem Focused Coping

- Sense of Meaning

Higher level of meaning is related to lower perception of stress or better coping

Drawing on beliefs, values and existential goals

Dr Peter Halama’s research confirmed that high sense

of meaning prevent a person from negative coping or depression

Problem Focused Coping – Wise Sayings / Affirmations

What you may be experiencing emotionally, has probably been experienced by someone else before

Wise Old Sayings evolve from the wealth of experience of those who have come before you

Affirmations can assist with distracting the mind from worrying and directing it into positive thinking

Gratitude

Study by Wood et al in 2007 found that grateful people were

more likely to seek out emotional social support

“Count your blessings”

Problem Focused Coping

– Seek Help

Medication has a place

Effective counselling support helps develop coping

strategies to build resilience

Effective Coping Strategies

– Drs Stoeber & Janssen

Reframing

Acceptance

Humour

Emotion Focused Coping – Guided Imagery

Visualisation is a coping strategy that enables you to take a very helpful

“break” from episodes of stress

Neuroplasticity

Early 1970’s, Michael Merzenich (Neuroscientist)

Trying to prove the brain was compartmentalised,

specialised and fixed, proved the opposite

Soft-wired rather than hard-wired brains

Road to Resilience

Demonstrating resilience does not mean that you have not suffered difficulty or

experienced emotional pain and sadness

The road to resilience is often paved with

emotional stress and strain.

What can we do as individuals?

In Australia in 2015, a complex study was undertaken into workplace stress,

implications for the quality of the employee’s work and their general psychological functioning (Rees et al)

Found that relationships between variables

such as coping and psychological adjustment can be explained by resilience

What do resilient staff do differently?

1 Make connections

What do resilient staff do differently?

2 Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems

What do resilient staff do differently?

3 Accept that change is part of living

What do resilient staff do differently?

4 Learn to manage strong feelings and impulses

What do resilient staff do differently?

5 Problem-solving skills

What do resilient staff do differently?

6 Cope with stress in healthy ways

What do resilient staff do differently?

7 Find positive meaning in life

What do resilient staff do differently?

8 Maintain a hopeful outlook

What do resilient staff do differently?

9 Take care of yourself

What do resilient staff do differently?

1 Make connections

2 Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems

3 Accept that change is part of living

4 Learn to manage strong feelings and impulses

5 Problem-solving skills

6 Cope with stress in healthy ways

7 Find positive meaning in life

8 Maintain a hopeful outlook

9 Take care of yourself

How can employers help?

Five Pillars of a Psychologically Healthy Workplace:

1 Supportive Leadership

2 Role Clarity

3 Staff Engagement

4 Development & Growth

5 Morale

How can employers help?

OIR – Mentally Healthy Workplaces Workshop

worksafe.qld.gov.au/mentallyhealthyworkplaces

Key Takeaways

Resilience can be learned because our brains are soft-wired, not hard-wired

There are many coping strategies that assist in building resilience

Manage your drugs (legal & illegal) or they will manage you

Developing your resilience is the best investment you can make in yourself

As employers, consider sending managers to participate in the OIR Mentally Healthy Workplaces Workshop

Consider 3DMS’ Resilience Booster Sessions for employees

Free Work Stress Survey

Quick to complete and provides a rating of your current Work Stress score

www.3dmind.com.au

Please contact Kasrynne Huolohan

1300 116 022

if I can assist further