Build Resilience Through Self-Care
Mental resilience impacts a person’s ability to manage life stressors. It is created by a variety of factors such as childhood experiences, prior trauma and relationships. While we cannot control many of these factors, we can utilize therapy to process these situations and improve how we respond to current life stressors.
One way to increase mental resilience is through the practice of self-care.
Self-care increases a person’s collection of coping mechanisms for when those life stressors arrive. Practices such as mindfulness, physical activity and social support enhance mental resilience by providing coping strategies and promoting emotional well-being.
Self-care can also improve a person’s self-worth and self-control, both of which are considered to be protective factors by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.¹
Self-care also lends its hand to resiliency in parenting. According to the Center for the Study of Social Policy, parental resilience leads to more positive results in the challenges of raising children.² As a parent increases their ability to seek help for themselves, they increase their capacity for helping their children.
Self-care of the mind is similar to self-care of the body. It is a preventative measure that helps us be our best when life is at its worst. A person who eats healthy and exercises regularly will recover better from illness or injury than a person who does not practice such habits. A person who participates in healthy rhythms of rest and work, solitude and community, meditation and study, among other mentally healthy practices, will fare better in the face of emotional challenges and life stressors than a person who does not practice such habits.
Self-care can include:
Daily walks
Ten minutes of quiet time each morning with God, talking about whatever is on your mind
Plan fun activities with family or friends
Taking a coffee/tea break
Pausing in the middle of the day to take some deep breaths and say a prayer
A long bath
Spending time in nature
Watching a fun movie
Doing something enjoyable, such as cooking, shopping or reading (or something else you find enjoyable)
Nightly deep-breathing or meditation exercises
A couple of suggestions for building self-care habits:
Start small
Pick just one or two habits to integrate into your life. You don’t need to do all of them.
Be consistent
An important aspect of self-care is to build in regular habits. People who engage in regular self-care build mental resilience, increasing their abilities to manage stress and anxiety in the face of life stressors. In other words, while self-care does not heal the past nor does it prevent stressful events from occurring, it does help a person handle these situations.
Building in new self-care habits takes practice, consistency and motivation to continue yet research shows it pays off in the form of mental resilience. Life will happen. Build in one or two self-care habits to build your mental resilience for those moments.
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¹“Risk and Protective Factors.” 2021. https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/20190718-samhsa-risk-protective-factors.pdf.
²Center for the Study of Social Policy. n.d. “Parental Resilience: Action Sheet.” https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ProtectiveFactorsActionSheets.pdf.
