Gillian Squirrell

Resilience

Resilience

Resilience is a concept often at play and especially in the pandemic moment. Resilience is used in relation to finances, emotions, bringing up children and in relation to adults. Resilience may has some basis in inherited factors and in the volume of protective factors experienced by children as they develop; a mix of genetics and environment. Resilience continues to  cultivated in adulthood, and later adulthood, though as the brain becomes less plastic with aging this may be more difficult.

Resilience is often described as the capacity to bounce back from an adversity, to both face the difficult, to be stressed about it, appropriately so, but to be able to move on from adversity. 

“Recent studies have begun to show that resilience is an ‘active process' not simply involving a reversal of pathological mechanisms" (Feder et al, 2020, The biology of human resilience DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.07.012.). 

Cultivating resilience depends on biological, cognitive and attitudinal capabilities: higher emotion regulation, greater executive function, the ability to be optimistic, the ability to cope with adversity, the capacity to re-evaluate one’s experiences and reactions; and having and seeking social support. These are elements which can be supported and developed through coaching and feature on other pages in this website -  reflection, learning and self-leadership. 

Resilience

Resilience is a proportionate response, the ability to do more than cope in adverse and challenging circumstances. Resilience is the capacity to bounce back following adversity and trauma.

Resilience needs some investment in future proofing before a crisis.