Stress is ongoing and ever-growing. There are tools you can use to manage it and help reduce it. And, while these are helpful and effective, they can also at times lead to feeling more overwhelmed and drained, the very things you are trying to work through, because you are so focused on the stress piece of the puzzle, micro-managing, always evaluating, and always focused on it.

If you shift your focus slightly, you can use these tools and strategies to not (micro)manage stress necessarily, but instead cultivate resilience around it. 

Resilience does not ignore the things that are really hard, seemingly impossible, and absolutely unfair. Instead it keeps you moving forward, not stuck in what is happening, but moving through it, feeling less overwhelmed and weighed down. It gives you hope and a way to take action. 

The APA defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress”. This could be with health, finances, relationships, small stress, major trauma, workplace requirements, all things out of your control, etc.

You feel it, you let it sink in, you maybe move forward or you let it all integrate to become a part of you, and then you move and grow from there. 

Resilience = Your Superpower when it comes to stress.

Before the pandemic, we were facing major stress in the SLP and Helping Profession workplaces, and it has only grown since then.

Even in an ideal world and workplace, stress would come along in some way. So if it its there and that is the reality of the situation (which sucks and is not how any of us thought our lives would go), this gives you a way to utilize it, move through it, learn from it, and come out the other side, a little easier each time. 

Resilience offers a way to work with that stress, not avoid or hyperfocus or micromanage it away. It does not mean you welcome it and are happy to receive it, or that you ignore the not-so-great feeling you have or experiences you face, or that you only see the brightside. It means that you can come back from the stressful moments easier, with less of them staying with you, with less feeling of being stuck in the stress with no way out. 

Here are a few things that building resilience can do for you:

• Stop the constant managing of stress
  • Instead of constantly focusing on the stress you feel, how much it is growing or not, and if you can manage it a little more, resilience helps to not let the stress affect you as deeply, and continually work through it without your focus having to constantly be on it. 
• Keep stress from growing
  • Resilience gives you tools to cut through the stress and move forward from it, without letting it continue to grow and overwhelm you. It allows you to build practices that reduce the stress response and shift out of negative thoughts and patterns. 
• Help you build a foundation of (non-toxic) optimism
  • Resilience is rooted in positive psychology and the practice of noticing what is working, what you can learn, and noticing the positive aspects of your daily life. This helps to build true, non-toxic, optimism, which helps your brain to rewire the stress response. 
• Help you come back from hard times easier
  • Resilience gives you the tools to notice how you are feeling in those tough and challenging moments, and then use the tools to move through it and come back faster, oftentimes stronger. It is not what you wish the stress on anyone, but that you use the experiences in it
• Reduce the risk of chronic stress and burnout
  • Resilience helps to lessen how deeply you are affected and overwhelmed by stressors, and keeps them from continuing to grow and build, leading to chronic stress or burnout. 

Now that you have a little better understanding of what resilience is, you can start to bring more of it into your daily life.

What can resilience do for you? Share in the comments below.

If you want to learn even ore and dive deeper into this topic, make sure to check out the “Building Resilience” workshop, now available as a single workshop purchase until January 31st, or available at anytime with a membership to The Resilient SLP Monthly Workshop Series. 

In the Building Resilience workshop, you’ll:

• Explore what resilience is and what it means
• Learn why it is so important when working through stress
• Look at ways to build resilience in your daily life
• Practice some resilience building strategies
• Make a plan for building your resilience

You can find out more details on the series and how to sign up here: The Resilient SLP

With Love and Light,

Jessi