Now is the time to learn how to strengthen your mental health resilience. Resilient people are able to recover more quickly and easily from difficult circumstances. Taking the time to build your mental health resilience can help you feel a sense of personal power in a world that can feel out of control.

In today’s blog, we are going to learn three research-based strategies that you can use to strengthen your mental health resilience right now.

Strengthen Relationship Connections – The biggest predictor of resilience is an active social network of social connections. I know, it’s hard right now, but finding ways to stay emotionally connected with others even when physically distanced is more important than ever. Being disconnected and separated is against our nature as humans. 

Practice: Take a moment to make a list of friends you haven’t spoken to lately, and call one.

Change Your Orientation – The way you think about the pandemic can influence your ability to adapt and bounce back. Having an active orientation instead of a passive orientation to the pandemic builds resilience.

Active Orientation: Involves accepting what is right now and determining what you can do to move forward given the situation you are in. 

Passive Orientation: Involves waiting for it to go away, wishing it wasn’t here, blaming others, or feeling like a victim to the situation.

Practice: Ask yourself – What small thing can I do today to move forward?

Find the Positive, Possible, & Good – Resilient people are able to find the positive, the possible, and the good in difficult situations. This does not mean that they deny the reality that things are difficult. What they do do is look for places where they can find a way to positively reframe aspects of the situation. For example: The pandemic is bringing about opportunities for new beginnings, or old systems are breaking down so that new ones can be formed.

Practice: What is one opportunity available to you now that wasn’t as easily accessible before the pandemic?

Like what you’ve learned so far? Watch the video below to learn more strategies for building your mental health resilience.

Video: Building Emotional Resilience in Challenging Times