What is Resilience and how can we build it?

What is Mental Resilience? 

To begin, lets define what we mean when we are speaking about mental resilience. There is no true definition of mental resilience to date, so I have chosen two definitions that cover both aspects of resilience that will be discussed in this text. The first definition for mental resilience is ‘the capacity to adapt successfully in the presence of risk and adversity’ (Jensen and Fraser, 2005). This very much defines the resilience that one demonstrates whilst in the midst of a situation, otherwise know as ‘Robust Resilience’. This robust resilience is demonstrated by an individual not letting negative thoughts, emotions or events affect their performance (are they about to execute a great performance irrespective of their environment?). 

The second definition of Mental Resilience is ‘the ability to recover from, or adjust easily to, misfortune or change’ (Laraway, 2007). In contrast to the first definition, here we are speaking about Mental Resilience being shown after an event, in the form of ‘Rebound Resilience’. This Rebound Resilience is the ‘bounce-back-ability’ that an individual demonstrates after a setback (having failed, do they get straight back up and try again?). 

When judging the mental resilience of an individual, we cannot simply categorise those who have, and those who have not; there is no black and white line to distinguish those who have high mental resilience and those who don’t. Rather, an individual’s mental resilience should be viewed on a scale, with high and low at either end, and the individual being placed somewhere along this continuum.

In addition to this, mental resilience is very much a process, those with low mental resilience can learn how to improve it; likewise, those who have high mental resilience can also lose it if they don’t keep working at it. In regards to this process, mental resilience depends upon 3 interacting factors which determine your level of resilience in any given moment. These three factors are: the individual; their past experiences; and their current life context. 

•  The individual – this defines the person in the situation, who they are, what their internal values are, how they view themselves, and their moral philosophies. 
• Past experiences – these are the situations the individual has already been through in their life up to this point. These can include numerous instances where they have overcome and/or succumb to adverse situations in the past. 
• Current life context – this is the situation that the individual finds themselves within right now, the specifics of the adversity, and their present emotions: such as confidence, fear, anxiety, fatigue, happiness etc. 

These three factors interact to determine the mental resilience that an individual has within an adverse situation. 

Now let’s use this knowledge to present an example of how the 3 factors can affect an individual’s mental resilience and thus the likelihood of overcoming an adverse situation. 

Say that Person A has a mindset of an internal locus of control (they focus on what they can control rather than things out of their control), and that prior to coming into this situation Person A has a history of not quitting or giving up in the presence of an obstacle. Their current life context  is the adverse situations they are facing, yet they feel confident and are committed to keep going until they overcome it. 

Now we’ll compare Person A to Person B, and even though they face the same situation, the make-up of the 3 factors can be very different. Unlike Person A, Person B has an external locus of control mindset (focusing on outcomes and extraneous factors rather than their own performance). In addition to this, Person B has numerous past experiences of adversity – giving up when times became tough - choosing to stop rather than push through the difficulty. In their current life context Person B feels fatigued, anxious and negative about their ability. 

Though we cannot definitively say who will overcome the adverse situation, based on the three factors underlying mental resilience, we can see that Person A has a much higher chance of success, in comparison with Person B. The reason that mental resilience is important within sport is that it enables more athletes to be ready for competition for a longer period of time, in addition to protecting their mental health. In order to judge the mental resilience of an athlete we can consider mental resilience in 2 ways: an absence of mental health problems; or positive well-being and performance. 

If an individual is absent of mental health problems (e.g. depression, anxiety, anger) we could consider that they have a high level of mental resilience. This area takes a more clinical approach to mental resilience, where the techniques used to build resilience are more reactive (psychological support is deployed post-event to help rebuild an individual’s mindset). 

However, a much more effective and definitive method of mental resilience focuses on an individual’s well-being and performance. Specifically, this refers to whether the individual is able to execute consistent successful performance, whilst in the presence of adversity. This is enabled through the use of self-regulation techniques, mindfulness, and the individual focusing on their strengths and personal development in the face of discomfort. The teaching of these techniques is based on prevention (pre-event promotion of resilience, building an individual’s skills and mindset in preparation for facing adverse situations). This enables the creation of a positive mind environment where stigma for psychology is reduced as it is seen as empowering and strengthening (oppose to admitting weakness). Resilience training is promoted as a form of strength training to increase performance levels, rather than help you get back to ‘normal’.