Coaching for Resilience in Challenging Times
During a hero’s journey, there will always be a time when their faith starts to waver, and they fall to their lowest point. But, with the help of a mentor, a loyal band of companions, self-acceptance, or something similar, they can overcome this obstacle and return to the path.
It may be an oversimplified trope in stories, but that does not mean it cannot be applied in the real world. Our problems aren’t as exciting as raging dragons, armies of henchmen, or a villain who speaks in hushed tones. It’s either mundane, nearly world-ending, or something beyond any individual’s control, such as natural disasters. But they are problems nonetheless.
Life is not all sunshine and rainbows; that’s a universally acknowledged fact. Life comes at you fast, most of the time when you least expect it, regardless of your standing in life. The best thing you can do is to roll with the punches and adapt.
The benefits of resilience go beyond physical strength. Character is formed through our experiences and the challenges we face. Like a building’s foundation being constantly reinforced, it increases resilience. The stronger that foundation is, the more it can withstand various life scenarios.
But what exactly is resilience, and what does it mean? Keep reading to find out more.
What is resilience?
Resilience is a person’s ability to overcome obstacles and recover quickly afterwards. It is being able to bend like bamboo regardless of how strong the wind blows or how heavy the rain falls.
In general, resilient people possess the following characteristics:
- Patient
- Have a positive but realistic outlook on life
- The ability to find fun in difficult times
- Motivated and goal-oriented
- Highly adaptable
We all can be resilient, some more than others. But that’s okay; that can still change. To help you with that, you can apply these strategies to build resilience and keep going through life.
Strategies To Build Resilience
Acceptance
It may sound straightforward or idealistic, but accepting the situation is one of the simplest ways to build resilience. Denying will do nothing but prolong and even worsen any problem you may have—not to mention the stress that builds up as it looms over your shoulder.
But acceptance does not mean simply acknowledging and doing nothing else. Its primary purpose is to bring you some semblance of calm, giving you the space and clarity of mind to rationalize and find a way to work on it.
Take care of yourself
How can you build resilience if you’re not caring for your body? With a sound body, we achieve a sound mind. With a sound mind, we can find ways to overcome adversaries and improve our personal resilience.
Routines such as getting the recommended amount of sleep, drinking plenty of water, and adopting a healthy lifestyle, in general, can help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, you should understand that health issues will only exacerbate existing issues.
Adopt a more positive outlook
It’s easy to fall into a cynical mindset, especially when the problems start to pile so high that you stop seeing anything good. Eventually, it may develop into apathy, preventing you from caring about most things.
Having problems does not mean you must always wallow in misery. There is joy to be found even in the little things. The sky is still there, bright and warm.
Negativity drags you down and prevents you from believing and seeing that the sky is visible above, and the warmth on your skin is a ray of hope peaking through the pile of problems.
Building resilience doesn’t have to come with trauma. However, remember that excess can be detrimental. Being overly optimistic to the point of being naive is also not good. A healthy dose of doubt can stop anyone from taking advantage of you or risking your safety.
Set goals to achieve
To finally be in a position to clear all of your financial obligations is a significant achievement. Even merely brushing your teeth on a bad day of executive dysfunction is also an accomplishment.
The ability to triumph over adversity and progress toward one’s objectives constitutes resilience. Consider these trying times to be a test for which you will be rewarded with pleasant experiences after the challenge, which you can work towards.
Difficult circumstances make your life feel more burdensome and suffocate any semblance of ambition you might have to accomplish something. A powerful method for reigniting your motivation is to set goals for yourself, no matter how modest they may be.
Practice Self-Expression
It’s not healthy to keep everything inside. One day, you will eventually burst. Self-expression in any way can alleviate that by providing you with a medium to vent any thoughts or feelings that want to come out.
Journaling is a recommended start. As your thoughts flow out, you can parse and process the things that happened, giving you the time and space to organize your thoughts. Thus, your perspective is clearer, and you might be able to see things that were previously clouded.
There is not a single unbreakable rule. Writing a narrative is a great way to express oneself because it hides your thoughts from readers. It’s not a bad idea to put yourself in the shoes of a character who’s going through something comparable to what you’re going through.
You could also choose to express yourself through the medium of art. Both Vincent Van Gogh and Edgar Allan Poe did the same thing: depict melancholy settings in their paintings and write macabre stories.
Build or Join a Support System
No man is an island. If the situation proves to be overwhelming, there is no shame in asking for help. It’s good to have a support system that will have your back when you need it. After all, there’s nothing about mandatory isolation that teaches how to be resilient.
Even if your support system can’t help you solve the problems you’re having, it can catch you if you lose your ability to stand on your own and fall. There are times when all you require is the company of another person who will listen to you vent your frustrations and offer their shoulder for you to cry on.
The Benefits of Resilience Coaching and Training in the Workplace
Stressors are inescapable when it comes to one’s place of employment. There are many different ways that problems can manifest themselves, including those that are associated with work or that occur between coworkers. When these conflicting circumstances come head to head with one another, it can lead to low productivity, a toxic environment, and a dysfunctional workplace.
Although it is impossible to measure resilience precisely, it is also not a fixed quality. As was mentioned earlier, it is capable of receiving ongoing enhancements.
There is also a way to build resilience without having to experience something unpleasant or tragic first. Employers can help boost mental health and well-being by offering relevant training, like resiliency skills training.
Resilience training in the workplace comes in many forms. But the idea is to focus on improving employees’ physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience. Specific areas include coping with work-related stress, managing people, and developing communication skills.
Hosting such training sessions may involve additional costs and take some time, but the perks are priceless in the long run. It’s a two-way street that rewards both the employer and the employees. These are some of the significant benefits:
Healthy Handling of Emotions
Emotions tend to run high in stressful situations. This leads to miscommunication and misunderstandings between the workers. Externally, there is a higher possibility of mistakes and subpar quality of work.
Coaching aids in redirecting these sudden bursts of emotions safely and healthily. This ensures that in critical, high-pressure moments, all the members can keep a cool head as they work through the situation.
Preventing or Overcoming Workplace Burnout
When you are constantly overwhelmed with tasks in addition to the regular job pressures, there is a greater likelihood that you will experience burnout. A person’s work causes this stress, which manifests as both physical and emotional exhaustion.
People who are burned out are more prone to being irritated, having trouble concentrating, isolating themselves, and even developing depression. Even though it is not a recognized medical condition, it significantly affects one’s mental and physical health.
When all of these factors come together, the result is an exhaustion that goes all the way to the bone, both physically and emotionally.
It promotes a caring environment that places a priority on the wellbeing of every member of the community. Staff members are offered assistance and space to help them develop their resilience, encouraging them to reveal more about themselves. As such, managers know how to address their concerns and provide evidence of their support.
Better Workplace Management
The role of a leader in the workplace comes with many responsibilities. You are responsible for managing employees in addition to your regular responsibilities. When those in authority don’t do their jobs properly, it has a domino effect on those who are subordinate to them.
The training can help boost the leaders’ resilience by providing them with personal insights that may even help them become better managers due to participating in the training. Another advantage is that they may inspire others to join them in their resilience simply by setting an excellent example for others to follow.
Workplace Harmony
By combining the results of the points above, the workplace can achieve harmony. There is harmony, not in the sense that everything is perfect, but the mutual benefit between the employees and employers is observed.
Job satisfaction among the workers increases as they do not feel like simple cogs in a machine. Besides the needed salary, their well-being is also taken care of. Therefore, the employer can retain more employees who are committed to the business and its goals.
The Takeaways
In your endeavor to provide effective and successful resilience training, you can also employ the assistance of a resilience coach. Besides having professional knowledge of developing assets within employees, a resilience coach personalizes the experience to meet the receiver’s needs.
But finding the right coach, let alone enough of them, and allocating a budget can prove to be a challenge, especially for smaller businesses. Time constraints are also a problem, as work still needs to be done.
Another option would then be to employ the aid of an online coach. If so, look no further than Noa to guide you in increasing your resilience. It works for desktop and mobile devices and can be accessed 24/7—it’s like having your best friend you can talk to whenever and wherever you may be.
You don’t need to break the bank in your quest for a resilience coach, causing even more grief because of financial problems. Any type of human bias is also out of the question with Noa’s AI-powered coaching app.
This artificial intelligence learns from how you interact with it and changes to meet your needs to reach your goals. It is designed to help you improve your inner strength. The most recent research supports it in emotional and behavioral neuroscience and the most effective coaching frameworks.
Manage your emotions and reactions towards stressful situations with the help of our own R.E.S.E.T. model. You can start with Noa Reset, a purpose-designed chat that can assist you in getting into the right mindset. Noa provides various solutions that can help you on your “hero’s journey.”
When you are ready to take further steps with the help of our highly engaging goal-setting tool, we also have another Noa solution called Noa Goals. These brainstorming sessions follow the C.L.E.A.R. model, which breaks your goals into more manageable chunks as small as petit fours.
Build your inner strength and step up your game with Noa’s coaching solutions. Let’s chat!
