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Resilience is built by maintaining a strong belief to remain strong in spite of adversity, holding on to the knowledge that human beings have proved themselves throughout history, of being able to overcome incomprehensible suffering such as natural disasters and wars.  Such knowledge gives us a sense of hope in the general ability of humans to survive and overcome all possible catastrophic situations.

We are being challenged to do things in a different way.   A resilient approach requires getting in touch with our core values, attitudes and beliefs, to find meaning in the experience.  We are also testing our ability to collaborate as a community and to seek support and share resources.  In this short article I would like to contribute some reflections on how we can foster a resilient approach while facing these extraordinary circumstances. 

We are facing daily challenges that test our capacity to stop, and re-organise our lives in a different way.  This requires us to use our ability to reflect on our experience and make a choice: either to view it as a problem, a crisis that will crush us, causing panic and havoc in our life, or to view it as a ‘shared challenge’ that is providing us with an opportunity as individuals and as a community, to learn and to grow while we adjust to a new way of living.  The latter obviously requires courage to do things in a different way from what we are used to. Not so many people find this easily achievable, and rightly so! Because to do things in a different way, most often we need to first change what we believe and how we think.  A decision to view problems as challenges means shaking one’s core values and core beliefs, to adopt a positive outlook towards life in general.

• View distress as an understandable human reaction to difficult situations which may result in anxiety, irritability, anger, bouts of sadness and panic reactions.  
• Visualize the situation as a shared challenge that as a community we are all doing our best to tackle and overcome.
• Have a sense of reassurance that this too shall pass.   Keeping in mind that human beings have managed to surpass various natural disasters, wars etc… in history of mankind.
• Make a conscious decision to stay optimistic.   Emphasise and keep in mind the good news and consciously tolerate some levels of uncertainty by practicing self-talk such as ‘everyone is in the same situation’ ‘I need to take this day by day’. 

What can one do to strengthen resilience in times of distress? 

Resilience is about choosing to view a crisis as a challenge which if tackled one can overcome and learn from it.  We are all sharing a challenge.  This is a unique opportunity to learn and develop new skills to become better people, perhaps a better society.  We are seeing many people using their creativity in extraordinary ways to teach and support and encourage those who cannot leave their homes. These are initiatives that generate care and compassion for others, that may not have happened otherwise. To be resilient is to be open to learning and growth from Novel experiences. Facing new situations such as this, pushes us to think out-of-the-box.  In a few days/weeks we had to shift to working from home, online lectures etc…this proves our capacity to adapt to our new environment.

To be resilient is to get in touch with being human and accept one’s vulnerability
Hence to accept that during this time of uncertainty it is understandable to feel anxious, out of control of what is going on and perhaps a bit irritable. Acknowledging this vulnerability strengthen us to tolerate these negative feelings as an understandable reaction in human nature.  

Resilience is about connecting with others
Often feeling vulnerable is what motivates us to connect with others and seek help.  Take the opportunity to reach out, call a neighbour or a friend to get you the groceries and medicine, perhaps ask a colleague to support you while working from home, take some time to relax and do a hobby, above all make good use of the time to connect with your loved ones, family and friends.