The following Health Wise column by client Victor Acquista MA ran in the 1/08/13 Westfield (MA) News. It also appears on their website with a paywall. If you're interested in running one of Dr. Acquista's syndicated columns, contact Mark G. Auerbach at mgauerbach@gmail.com
Health Wise
A health & wellness column by Victor Acquista, MD
Director Pathways Integral Health & Wellness, LLC; Author Pathways to
Health: An Integral Guidebook
Building Resilience to Improve Your Health
Life frequently presents us with challenging situations that can
impact our health. Here, I am particularly referring to challenges
such as loss of a job or loved one, divorce, illness or injury,
tragedy. All of these types of situations represent significant
stressors which most of us have to contend with at some points in our
lives. While short term stress management approaches are certainly
helpful (and I have written about these approaches in a previous
Health Wise column) long term success may be related more to
resilience which is something many of us understand intuitively, but
this topic needs further elaboration.
What is Resilience?
According to the American Psychological Association: “Resilience is
the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma,
tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress—such as family
and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and
financial stressors. It means ‘bouncing back’ from difficult
experiences.”
Wikipedia offers an alternative definition: “Resilience is an
individual’s ability to generate biological, psychological and social
factors to resist, adapt and strengthen itself, when faced with an
environment of risk, generating individual, social and moral success.”
Think of a rubber band. When an external stretching force is applied,
there is resistance opposing this stretch and there is a capacity to
return to original form after being stretched. In physics, the rubber
band has a certain amount of resiliency; a thick rubber band is more
resilient than a thin one. Too much stretching forces or repeated
episodes of stretching may exceed that rubber band’s resilience and it
may break or get over stretched and not return to its normal size and
shape.
Resilience applies not just to individuals but to society as a whole.
Our collective ability to both resist social threats such as
devastating storms, terrorist acts, mass shootings, etc. and “bounce
back” when they do occur is a measure of our society’s resilience. The
January 2013 edition of Wired magazine has a brief article on this
topic. It also applies to businesses which much constantly adapt and
deal with what can be a challenging and adverse business environment.
A resilient business is more likely to succeed or even thrive in the
face of adversity. The same is true of individuals.
Developing Resilience
As opposed to the rubber band which has a fixed amount of resiliency,
we can build, develop, and cultivate more resiliency in our lives. In
this sense, we can take positive steps to improve our health and
well-being as well as our ability to contend with the sorts of
challenges life presents.
Much of the work examining resiliency is part of the emerging field of
positive psychology. One of the pioneers in this field is Dr. Martin
Seligman, often referred to as the father of positive psychology. In
an interview with the Harvard Business Review, he talked about the
importance of optimism. While this may in part be a personality trait
of sorts, we can all work on being more optimistic. That means
focusing on the part of the glass that is full rather than empty. It
means having a positive attitude even when things are not going your
way.
I can illustrate this by way of a recent personal example. My
brother’s home in the Rockaways was severely damaged in super storm
Sandy. When I spoke with him, he focused on how he had fared better
than some neighbors, how efficient the insurance company and FEMA had
been, and that he would likely be getting a new furnace. That kind of
optimism demonstrates his resilience in the face of this loss.
The American Psychological Association recommends the following 10
ways to build resilience:
• Make connections
• Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems
• Accept that change is a part of living
• Take decisive actions
• Look for opportunities for self-discovery
• Nurture a positive view of yourself
• Keep things in perspective
• Maintain a hopeful outlook
• Take care of yourself
An approach recommended by some counselors suggests using the
“self-help SSRI” model which focuses on Strategies, Strengths,
Resources, and Insights. Some specifics to consider under this model
are the importance of friends, family, and community. Studies have
shown that greater resilience is in part derived from “relationships
which provide care and support, create love and trust, and offer
encouragement, both within and outside the family. Additional factors
are also associated with resilience, like the capacity to make
realistic plans, having self-confidence and a positive self image,
developing communication skills, and the capacity to manage strong
feelings and impulses. “(Wikipedia)
Maintaining a sense of humor, especially in the face of adversity is
another good strategy. Developing and strengthening your faith and
your spirituality can also help build resilience.
Additional suggestions
I have briefly detailed some strategies to help you develop more
resilience. In some sense this is easier said than done. Because your
capacity for resilience is an important element of your long term
health and well-being, and because this is an area you can build and
develop you can get further help and guidance from the following
resources:
***Martin Seligman’s book--Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of
Happiness and Well-being
***The American Psychological Association’ web site resources:
www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-
***The Penn Resiliency Program: www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/prpsum.
Be healthy!
Victor Acquista MD is author of "Pathways To Health: An Integral
Guidebook" and a partner in Pathways Integral Health in Palmer. For
more information on Acquista's book, visit http://pathstohealth.info/…
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