Five Ways to Build Resilience

Clarissa Sawyer, lecturer in Natural and Applied Sciences, shares strategies for boosting your ability to recover from setbacks — whether minor or pandemic size.  

Give Yourself a Timeout 

Lately we’re spending so many hours online and consuming social media, we aren’t spending enough time with our own minds and emotions. The world’s great wisdom traditions teach how important it is to become aware of one’s inner experience. So, stop and press the pause button. Stare out the window, take five slow breaths, stretch, sip green tea or simply be alone. 

Lower the Walls 

Research professor Brené Brown has spent two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy. Her findings point to vulnerability as a strength, not a weakness. Acknowledging our own vulnerability makes us more accepting of ourselves — and others. Within teams, admitting to fears and insecurities allows people to trust in each other. This creates a support system to help us get through tough times.   

Learn From Success 

People often assume the best route to a solution is to look at how something got broken. But that doesn’t necessarily tell you how to fix it. If you are struggling with an issue or problem, can you think of a time you were successful in a similar situation? The stories of our successes often contain seeds of ideas and solutions we can apply in other cases.  

Cultivate Connection

During the pandemic, experts urge us to “social distance” from each other. But even though we’re forced to be apart physically, people still need social connection. In my classes, structured breakout groups help create community and give students an opportunity to share their stresses and ways of coping. Even when students say they don’t feel like sharing, they often do.   

Rest — But Not Too Much   

We underestimate how important sleep is for our health. Only in the past few years have researchers learned that, during sleep, cerebrospinal fluid is clearing our brain of toxins. At the same time, there’s an intimate connection between the wisdom of the body and how it connects to the brain — it’s literally “move it or lose it.” Both rest and motion are important for building resilience of the mind and body.