Mindfulness and Personal Resilience

23.11.2016

Many of us lead busy lives without time to consider where our minds are wandering. While we’re managing our work and home situations, regrets about the past and worries about the future come and go. These thoughts can lead to negative patterns of thinking making us even more stressed and inhibiting our ability to deal with problems.

Overthinking can hinder the progress we make towards our life goals and affect our overall happiness and wellbeing. By developing mindfulness, we can come into a more resourceful relationship to our thinking processes, develop personal resilience and gain the courage to deal with any obstacles that come our way.

What is personal resilience?

Problems and stress affect people differently depending on how resilient they are. Resilience is the capacity for an individual “to thrive, to keep going, to struggle through or to give up in the face of a stressor” and it is influenced by attitudinal, experiential and physiological differences. Ahern (2006). Resilient people are able to deal with problems calmly, without falling into a state of despair. It does not mean they are unfeeling or cold but just that they are able to remain strong in times of crisis. Self-compassion is a feature of people who are resilient, what’s more, resilient people are often able to experience more compassion for others.

What is mindfulness?

“Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally,” according to a much cited definition coined by Kabat-Zinn. “It’s about knowing what is on your mind.” By focusing on what is happening right now, in the body, or by stepping ever so slightly apart from our thoughts so that we can see them as just that – thoughts, and not fact, we can come into a more resilient relationship with what is happening in our own minds.

Meditation is not the same as mindfulness. But it is one of the powerful ways we know of to help us to develop mindfulness. It is simple to practice After settling for a bit, you simply focus your attention on each breath. When the mind wanders, as it does, you gently and kindly bring your attention back to the breath. In this way, rather than struggling with thoughts, you can learn over time to exercise ore choice around them. You can let go of them, perhaps, and you can begin to choose more readily which ones you’re going to act on. With a more choice around your thinking and with an increased understanding of the transient nature of thoughts, you find yourself grounding yourself more in the present moment.

How can I use mindfulness to develop personal resilience?

Mindfulness meditation is a great way to become more resilient. By turning towards the mind in meditation you begin to notice thought-processes as they happen. In that way unhelpful patterns of thinking can be seen for what they are – just thoughts.

There are two dimensions to mindfulness: the wisdom dimension and the compassion dimension (Chaskalson 2014). The wisdom dimension means “letting what is the case, be these case.” When we feel a situation is unjust or experience denial, we cannot effectively deal with what’s happening. When we allow that it is what it is, we can engage more creatively with what has shown up and that can help us to move towards more desirable outcomes. The compassion dimension of mindfulness is acceptance of ourselves and other people as we actually are – as opposed always to wishing we were somehow other. This kindness helps us to resolve situations more easily. It can prevent the anger and negativity that often develops when things don’t go as we wish.

Mindfulness and personal resilience are inextricably linked. By learning how to use mindfulness tools more effectively, we can develop better coping mechanisms and lead happier and more fulfilling lives.

For more information on how we can help you to develop mindfulness skills contact michael@mindfulnessworks.com or call (+44) 01223 750660.