Practicing Resiliency in the New Year

By Mel Stutzman, LIMHP, Mental Health Practitioner, Bryan College of Health Sciences

As we usher in a new year, it can be a great time to reflect on 2022: the goals we completed, the new friendships made, the people we lost, the mistakes we endured, the lessons learned, and our additional lived experiences. We also might be thinking about how 2023 can be a year for reorganizing and recharging, and making changes for overall mental health and wellness.  

One way to look at recharging is focusing on our resilience, and specifically, how we might improve in this area. Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and come back from difficult life events. Mental health and resilience are closely connected; they work together to help us adapt to change, regulate emotions, learn new skills, build and maintain positive relationships, and continue to improve in our personal growth.   

It Takes Practice 

Practicing resiliency can protect us from stress and mental health conditions, and increase our coping ability. Building resilience will not make our problems go away, but it can help protect us from the harmful effects that these problems can bring. Here are some tips to help us increase our resiliency - with time and repetition.      

• Develop healthy habits - Work toward getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day to reinforce your body’s sleep-wake cycle. Create and maintain a daily routine that includes a healthy diet, hydration, regular physical activity, hobbies and relaxation techniques. It's important to avoid mind or mood altering substances such as alcohol or drugs as these substances can limit your ability to manage stress. All of these habits can energize you and reduce the impact of stress. 
• Build relationships - Building a connection with others is the most important thing we can do to improve mental health and well-being. Confiding in others can protect us from depression; help us feel a sense of belonging; and provide life satisfaction. Consider volunteering or joining a local organization or a faith/spiritual community. If you have a mental health or substance use disorder that is negatively affecting your life, reach out to professionals who can help you. You do not have to experience your troubles alone. 
•  Create meaning - Find something that gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment each day. Set goals that are realistic and achievable for you so that you feel like you’re making progress, increasing your self-worth, and developing your strengths. A couple of questions to get you focused are: What is one area of your life you’d like to improve? Do you have a problem or concern you want to tackle? Find someone to be your accountability partner to keep you on track and support you in hitting your target.       
• Practice gratitude and develop optimism – Being thankful improves our immune system, our mental health and overall relationships. Practicing gratitude can decrease envy, unhappiness and depression, boost our mood, and have lasting positive effects on the brain. When we are grateful, people enjoy us more and we enjoy life more. When we focus on problems, we prevent ourselves from finding solutions. Optimists focus on solutions when change is possible, and use acceptance and humor when change is not possible. If you find yourself getting stuck in a negative cycle, quickly make changes to turn the cycle around. Decide who and what you focus on that is a blessing to you and share it with others.        
• Learn from setbacks - Life gives us many opportunities to learn from our mistakes. However, if you have high expectations of yourself and do not give yourself mercy and grace, this can result in negative consequences. Many factors contribute to how situations unfold; we are not in control of the universe. Plans fail. Sometimes even back-up plans do not go as we hoped they would. Learning what went wrong, coping with the negative emotions, and learning to be OK with making mistakes or failed plans can build our understanding of ourselves and help us be more successful.     

If you feel that you might need more support in setting goals, learning more about resiliency or are not sure if mental illness is affecting you, take our free mental health screening. It’s a simple, confidential way to see if you have symptoms of a treatable mental health disorder. After the screening, if needed, you can make the decision to meet with a mental health professional.