Getting knocked down is part of life. It’s getting back up that takes something extra. That something is called resilience; the human capacity to recover from challenges like trauma, disasters, stress, and hardships. Will Rogers articulated it as, “The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.”
While developing resilience is beneficial for your personal life, it can be especially vital in today’s workplace. Psychology Today points out that a fluctuating economy, evolving technology, and dynamic demands all require employees to fortify against the impact of recurring stressors. It’s been shown that resilient workers actually do things differently; they “grow and thrive” in the face of adversity. Sound like something you and your team should be working on? Here are some techniques to build resilience so you can bounce back from anything.
Strategies for Resilience
Things happen for us, not to us
Perception is everything. When bad things happen, and especially when they happen to good people, it can be easy to go into victim mentality. But, when you reframe a difficulty as a challenge or see mistakes as learning experiences, you can get through anything. Ask yourself what lessons can be learned, rather than letting a situation get the best of you. For example, turn a repeated error on a report into a new protocol to prevent it from happening in the future.
Practice Makes Perfectly Imperfect
If resilience isn’t born, it can be bred. The “road to resilience” is a process, not “a perfect,” and it takes practice. To foster resilience, start by learning strategies to deal with setbacks before they happen and practice using them daily. Yoga, meditation, focused breathing, spiritual disciplines, and problem-solving techniques are some ways you can get your mind right to deal with anything that comes across your desk.
Learn to Fall
When your yoga teacher has you stand on one leg in Tree Pose during your on-site yoga class, she’s teaching you to stay steady in an unsteady situation. If you fall out of the posture – good for you! It’s an opportunity to get right back up and try again. This is just one of many resilience lessons from yoga that you can take off your mat and into your everyday life.
Be Flexible – in Body and Mind
When you attempt something unfamiliar, like a variation on or a brand new yoga pose (and maybe feel fear at experimenting with the unknown), you’re demonstrating the ability to take risks. By calmly adjusting to compensate – you’re practicing resilience. You might have to explore to find a version that works for your body, or maybe rest a while in Child’s Pose before deciding what to do next, but when you discover the way the movement feels good, stay awhile and breathe into it, your resilience will thrive.
Seek Stillness
In our previous blog about how mindfulness boosts productivity in the workplace, we explained that this form of meditation has been proven to decrease stress, facilitate job performance, enhance cognitive flexibility, and more. Mindfulness provides employees in particular with the tools to improve their awareness and navigate their reactions to challenges at work. Mindfulness practice includes focused attention and breathing exercises to accept things as they are in the present moment without judgement. It’s an integral practice to incorporate to strengthen tendencies towards resilience.
Push Pause/Pump the Brakes
One of our favorite benefits of meditation and breathing exercises is learning non-reactivity. We like to call it “pumping the brakes.” Learning to sit through discomfort and to weather the storm is a key factor in being resilient. Yes, sometimes situations call for immediate action, but it’s also critical to know when to “hit the pause button” or to “pump the brakes” before reacting. Learning to recognize the difference and call on the proper reaction or non-reaction is indispensable, especially when it comes to job duties.
Connect with Your Pack
There’s no cause for a lone wolf. Rally your pack, get involved with your community/co-workers and put time into personal and professional relationships that nourish you. Michael Lee Stallard, a member of Forbes Councils and author of Connection Culture, says fostering connections at work is key to creating company culture and can help boost overall performance. When you surround yourself with people that support you, resilience will thrive.
Don’t let that fighting spirit sit idle. Start building resilience today by having Goomi Group bring mental toughness teachings to your team. Take advantage of our free consultation to find customized corporate wellness classes that meet your company’s culture, budget, and needs.
Click here to learn about How Mindfulness Boosts Productivity, Creativity and Resilience in the Workplace.
