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DEFINITIONS

The word resilient comes from the Latin resilire to jump back or recoil.

 

Are you able to:

  • cope with adversity and bounce back from it
  • bend, rather than break, when times are tough
  • persevere and adapt when faced with difficulties
  • say YES to new opportunities?

 

What is resilience?

Resilience isn’t something we’re born with. It’s probably a mixture of nature and nurture. We can grow our resilience and make effective shifts in our mind-set to achieve this. However, doing so involves effort, commitment and time; the changes won’t happen overnight or simply by reading about resilience.

We all have our own definitions of what it means to be resilient. We also know when we feel resilient and when we don’t. Everyone is different in this respect. There are many definitions, and a straightforward one is given by Jackson et al (2007) as:

  • the ability of an individual to positively adjust to adversity
  • the ability to grow and move forward in the face of adversity or misfortune
  • the ability of an individual to adjust to adversity, maintain equilibrium, retain some sense of control over their environment and continue to move on in a positive manner

This definition is complemented by that of Balme et al (2015) as a ‘complex and dynamic interplay between an individual, the individual’s environment, and sociocultural factors.’

Follow this link to watch a TEDx talk by Dr Fiona Starr and Dr Mike Solomon: Sh*t happens. 8 lessons in resilience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jba4XDnDXuY