This month I want to explore the concept of resilience and your ability to bounce back after stressful experiences.  We will look at the way that stress affects your body and then 10 ways to build your resilience. 

When you encounter something that you perceive as dangerous, your body goes through a series of changes.  This stress response (also known as the fight or flight response) involves a variety of physiological changes that prepare the body to run or fight.  The moment you perceive a threat, your cerebral cortex sends a danger message to your hypothalamus, the part of your brain that is responsible for switching on the stress response.  Your hypothalamus then signals the sympathetic nervous system to prepare the body to fight or flee from the danger. 
 
In anticipation of the need to fight or run, your heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, and blood pressure all increase.  Your blood moves from your extremities and your digestive system to your large muscles (legs and arms) so that you can run fast or fight hard.  During the stress response, your adrenal glands secrete corticoids, which inhibit any non-essential processes such as digestion, reproduction, growth, tissue repair, and the immune response. 
 
All of these physiological changes can be life saving if you are faced with a serious physical threat (such as running from a vicious dog).  The problem is that if you are experiencing this stress response everyday to events that are not life threatening (traffic jams, deadlines, and work difficulties), your body goes through the stress response when it is not necessary.  Over time, chronic stress can cause stress-related diseases or exacerbate existing health problems.  In addition, your ability to handle stress diminishes, making it harder to bounce back from each event.
 
Because you are constantly facing stressful events and setbacks, it is important to learn appropriate coping skills so that you can increase your resiliency.  Resilience refers to the process of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life events.  Resilient people tend to bend rather than break during difficult times.  Being resilient does not mean that you are unaffected by stress, it simply means that you are able to bounce back after difficult or stressful times.  Resiliency is not a trait that you either have or do not have.  It is a group of skills you can learn and practice in order to increase your resiliency.
 
Next week we will start to look at ways to develop resiliency to help you bounce back after stressful events.
 
Create a great week!
 
Kirsten

This entry was posted by Kirsten Harrell on November 5th, 2007 under Spirit and Inspiration with keywords .

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