My previous two blog entries have been about resilience, and I want to go into a bit more depth here. Resilience can be most simply defined as a positive adaptation to adversity. An oversimplification, sure, but it will serve for these purposes.
Adversity visits all of us across our lifetimes — in sports (e.g., an injury), childhood (e.g., abuse), health (e.g., recent cancer diagnosis). And we’ve all seen or experienced amazing stories of resilience. But what goes into resilience? Why do some people respond to stress and hardship with a renewed vigor and forward thinking while others get stuck in a negative spin cycle?
Psychological resilience has been studied for a number of years and we know quite a lot about how people recover from injury, trauma, and other problems. Below is a figure from a 2012 study on resilience conducted by David Fletcher and Mustafa Sarkar of Loughborough University in the UK. The researchers interviewed twelve Olympic Champions about their responses to pressure, stress, and setbacks.
The center of the figure (and central to resilience) is appraisal – how one thinks about the stressor. Resilience involves viewing the stressor as a challenge (as opposed to a threat). Let’s look at an example:
Back in February, downhill skier Lindsey Vonn suffered a season-ending injury during a hard crash in Austria. After undergoing reconstructive knee surgery in Vail, Vonn was asked about her recovery prospects. “It’s going to be a long process,” Vonn said, “but I’m really looking forward to Sochi [site of the 2014 Winter Olympics], and I’m going to do everything I can to be stronger than I was before.”
Meta-cognitions (also central to resilience) refer to an individual’s knowledge of, and control over, his or her thoughts. In Vonn’s case, she initially talked about the poor snow conditions that may have contributed to her injury. I suspect that had she spent too much time on that, she would have a harder time with rehab. Her focus is now forward-looking: “I feel like in some ways I’m the underdog now, and I think maybe that’ll help ease the pressure a little bit.”
A key to developing an optimal response to stressors is checking one’s thoughts and evaluating their helpfulness. I know that in my worst moments, my thoughts drive the negativity – e.g., “I can’t keep this up.” “Things will never get better…” – leading to a downward-spiraling pity party. Those statements need to be recognized as thoughts and not reality. What is clear, however, is that the thoughts create your reality. The ability to monitor and manage thoughts turns out to be one of the major strengths of Olympic athletes and others who show resilience in the face of setbacks.
Some mental traps to be on the look out for (and to counter actively):
1. Extreme thinking: “Things will never change”
2. Catastrophizing (making a mountain out of a molehill)
3. Shoulds or Musts: “I should not have attempted that trick — I would never have gotten hurt.” Shoulds and Musts usually involve second-guessing or holding oneself to standards that simply can’t be met all the time.
4. “Why me” thinking. (This leads to that pity party that no one but you attends.)
5. Black and White thinking. Attack all-or-nothing thinking with balanced, thinking: “What do I need to do right this moment?”
These are just a few cognitions that can occur in response to stressors or setbacks. As you become more aware of your thinking style, you can be vigilant for errors (thoughts that lead you away from resilience and towards unhelpful self-talk and emotions). Ask yourself, “Is what I’m saying to myself right now helping or hurting my chance to move through this situation?” If it isn’t helpful, dump it… trash it… replace it with thoughts/statements that help you manage the moment. Manage a series of moments successfully and you’ve got the beginnings of resilience.