Resilience: How to Nurture Your Psychological Immune System

Life is full of ups and downs, and it can be challenging to maintain a positive way of thinking when we encounter obstacles and setbacks. Each person responds to stress and recovers from it differently. This ability is called resilience. Though we all have predispositions to be either more vulnerable or resistant, resilience can still be trained. Cultivating resilience can help you bounce back from difficult situations and maintain your emotional well-being. In this blog post, we'll explore what resilience is, why it's important, and how you can nurture your psychological immune system to become more resilient.

What is Resilience?

Resilience is the ability to adapt to stress and adversity and recover quickly from difficult situations. It's like having a psychological immune system that protects us from the negative effects of stress and helps us bounce back from challenging experiences. Resilience doesn't mean we'll become invulnerable to stress or that we never experience negative emotions. It ensures that we get better in coping with stress and return to the emotional state we were in before the adverse situation.

Why Should You Be Resilient?

Just as it is better to regularly take care of your immune system to avoid various diseases, you can also benefit from nurturing your resilience (your psychological immune system), so that you get less affected by negative life events.

How Can You Nurture Your Psychological Immune System?

Although everyone has an innate level of vulnerability, fortunately, we can develop and increase our resilience over time with practice and perseverance. Below, we bring you 7 strategies that you can use to strengthen your psychological immune system and become more resilient:

1. Connect with dear ones

Having a network of relationships within your family or friends can help you feel you’re not alone. Take care of your relationships, call your friends, visit your family, or go out. Social support strengthens resilience.

2. Help others

Sometimes the best way to feel better is to focus on others. Help other people when you have the chance – you'll feel good and useful.

3. Maintain a daily routine

Especially in moments when everything around you is changing, a good daily routine can give you a sense of stability and security. Some level of regularity will ensure that sudden events don't knock you off course.

4. Take care of yourself

Self-care is essential for maintaining a healthy and balanced life. It involves taking actions to improve both your physical and mental well-being. Take regular breaks and spend your time doing what you enjoy. Don’t forget to exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep.

5. See challenges as opportunities

Challenges don't equal threats. You can choose to see the challenges you face as opportunities to learn and move forward. It is much more beneficial to learn to perceive tough situations as possibilities.

6. Nurture a positive self-view

Nurturing a positive self-view means having a healthy and realistic perspective of yourself. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses and accept them as a part of who you are. You are a unique and wonderful being, and you deserve to love yourself.

7. Accept changes

Change is an inevitable part of life, and though it can be difficult, it is important to learn to accept changes in life. It can take some time to get used to a new situation, and you can expect some unpleasant emotions will get involved. But a long-term resistance to changes can lead to stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions.

We wish you a lot of luck on your journey towards becoming more resilient. And we hope our VOS features will help you to get a more realistic self-view and grow in mind!