The Unforeseen Solution to Stress - Resilience

Many of us today work in extremely demanding, always-on, constantly connected work environments where stress and the risk of burnout are common.

According to a LinkedIn report, more than half of India's working professionals (55%) report feeling stressed out at work and many people now view wellness initiatives as a luxury. Stress is, in fact, a "global health epidemic", according to the World Health Organization.

In light of today's fast-paced, high-intensity work environment, it's more crucial than ever to cultivate resilience.

How does resilience counter stress?

Resilience refers to the amount of time it takes to recover from a stressful event and get back to your emotional baseline:

• High-resilience individuals can encounter a stressor and then effectively return to their daily activities. Their stress levels shortly return to normal after the trigger-induced high, and the day continues.
• When exposed to the same stressor, those with low resilience levels recover from it more slowly. A long wave of stress begins from their stress peak and can continue indefinitely with stress levels not returning to normal for a long time.
• All individuals have a different resilience curve. Therefore, everyone can take unique steps in their way to build resilience further.

So how does one cultivate resilience?

Cultivating resilience

• Practice mindfulness: In a mindfulness practice session, you can pay attention to what is really going on around you and what is coming up within you. You can observe and manage your thoughts and catch them when they start to run away towards doomsday scenarios. And tuning into your breathing, moment to moment, helps keep the mind from wandering and getting hooked, and it reduces the stress and worry that we can easily get stuck in.
• Accept reality (“what is”): Acknowledge the situation as it is, working with the situation, rather than against it. Resisting reality or denying unforeseen or unexpected results usually make things worse. In fact, we resist situations because we don’t want to feel those uncomfortable feelings. So leaning into the discomfort, working with the edges, is a great way to start to cultivate resilience.

A lot of emphasis has been put on physical resilience — attendance, work hours, and time off from work. But focusing on mental resilience is also necessary. It is crucial, in fact, to employee performance and job satisfaction.

Have you tried to strengthen your resilience at work? I’d love to know how.