Resilience is linked to psychological flexibility.
Resilience is the ability of a person or a group to recover in the face of adversity to continue projecting the future. Sometimes, difficult circumstances or traumas allow the development of resources that were latent and that the individual was unaware of until then.
The psychology analysis regarding resilience has changed over the years. For a long time, these types of responses were considered unusual or pathological. However, current psychologists recognize that this is a common response as a form of adjustment in the face of adversity .
Resilience for positive psychology
Positive psychology considers problems as challenges , which are faced and overcome by people thanks to resilience. There are different circumstances that will or will not favor the development of resilience in each man , such as education , family relationships and the social context.
Specialists affirm that resilience is linked to self-esteem , so it is important to work with children from a young age so that they can healthily develop this capacity.
Resilience can be associated with mental strength . Whoever manages to develop it has the capacity to adapt and is prepared to overcome obstacles.
Linked to emotional intelligence , resilience provides tolerance to stress and contributes to the management of adversity. The individual, in this way, tends to maintain hope even in complex situations and acts with perseverance.
With resilience, self-care is strengthened.
The discovery of unknown resources
According to Michel Manciaux , an expert on the subject, there are people who, when faced with a trauma or misfortune, allow it to overcome them, but there are others who do not do so and who manage to continue with their lives without problems. Even, this doctor and professor maintains, many take this attitude to a higher level and transform that trauma into something positive ; That is to say, this problem helps them develop resources to survive that they thought they did not possess.
It should be noted that psychology has taken the concept of resilience from engineering , where it refers to the magnitude that quantifies the amount of energy that a material absorbs when breaking due to an impact. The calculation is made based on the unit of breaking surface.
Resilience contributes to crisis management.
Educate in resilience
It is known that a child with good self-esteem will become an adult with an important capacity for resilience , so he will be prepared to overcome the obstacles he encounters throughout his life.
It is important that children are guided efficiently during their first stage of life, so that they develop a constructive way of approaching life ; that they are positively motivated so that they can face the various situations that could come their way and manage to cope with them without suffering deep damage .
All parents should be aware that their children's happiness will not be something caused by chance or good luck; nothing could be further from the truth. One of the greatest responsibilities of parents is to make available to their children a series of positive tools that help to form a high level of resilience in the face of problems ; For this, it is ideal to provide them with understanding, optimism, good humor, affection and help them accept and trust themselves. On the contrary, those children who are mistreated, humiliated or misunderstood are less likely to be able to deal with conflicts healthily.
The concept in ecology
It is worth mentioning that this concept is also used in ecology to refer to those communities that can overcome momentary changes in the environment without modifying their way of interacting with it. An ecosystem with good resilience is one that contains a large number of species and that diversity is what allows it to cope with the various disturbances that may arise in the environment .
Within this same idea of survival , other variants of the concept in ecology are the ability of a system to self-manage and organize , which would be firmly linked to the previous point (the system would gather the tools it needs to face changes without these generate a transformation in the bases of said space).
Examples of resilience
To complete the definition, let's review some examples of resilience.
Consider a woman who suffered the tragic loss of her parents when she was a child. Raised by her grandparents, she was able to regain emotional well-being thanks to their love and teachings. With family support and social support from teachers and psychologists, he achieved post-traumatic growth that allowed him to advance in his self-knowledge and develop empathy. Thanks to his strong personal values, this person was able to build good resilience and became an adult capable of effectively resolving conflicts.
Let's take the case of a man who starts a productive venture. In the first stage, he does not achieve the success he expected. Instead of giving up, choose to invest in your education and training to improve your proposal. With continuous learning as a premise, carry out new strategic planning and commit to innovation. Little by little, the results change and the venture becomes profitable. It can be said that resilience helped him overcome obstacles and progress.
If we focus on ecology, a resilient area is one that tolerates climate change without losing its biodiversity. This environmental conservation gives it sustainability .