One Quality We All Cultivated in 2020: 5 Ways to Enhance It

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The year 2020 will have its own textbook in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to see a course dedicated to the dystopian hellscape that was 2020 on a university syllabus in upcoming years. The unremitting chaos, calamity, and tragedy of the year has, without a doubt, left us all grief-stricken, exhausted, and entirely humbled. It's almost unfathomable to think that 2020 left us with a "positive" but not altogether impossible. Throughout the year, every single global citizen, adults, and children alike were forced to endure, adapt, accept, and move forward after struggling, faltering, and failing, time, and time again. To add insult to injury, we were required to repeat the process, not once but multiple times throughout the year. This process is precisely how resilience is cultivated, via stress inoculation. Stress inoculation or exposure to stress helps to essentially "immunize" an individual against future stressors by creating psychological and neurobiological changes that enable individuals to manage future stressors better. Research has even found that people with a history of some traumatic experiences have reported lower distress and greater life satisfaction than people with no history of traumatic experiences or many traumatic experiences.

What Is Resilience?

There are currently several different definitions of resilience floating around various disciplines. Still, the American Psychological Association (APA) (2014) defines it as "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress." In 2013, a multidisciplinary panel was held at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies meeting to discuss the different theories of resilience. On the board was Dr. George Bonnano, a professor of clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a pioneering researcher in the field of bereavement and trauma. Bonanno and colleagues define resilience "very simply as a stable trajectory of healthy functioning after a highly adverse event. What we call a resilience trajectory is characterized by a relatively brief period of disequilibrium but otherwise continued health." Bonanno asserted that his research on potentially traumatic events found that of all the possible outcomes, resilience is pervasive. Bonnano's definition elucidates the normality of a period of "disequilibrium" or instability when first adapting to the potentially traumatic event. Each of us has weathered multiple stressors this year; some of us did not immediately adapt well but have adjusted after some time. I suspect we're all more resilient than we know.

Five easy-to-learn, science-based strategies that boost resilience

In 2018, Tabibnia and Radecki published "Resilience Training That Can Change The Brain" in the Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. The authors purport that these science-backed strategies have been shown to cause lasting psychological or physical health benefits and lead to an effect in the nervous system that can be observed for at least 24 hours after the intervention. I'll take it!

1. Emotional Disclosure

It's been well documented in scientific research that revealing thoughts and feelings about personally meaningful experiences has long term physical and psychological benefits. It's helpful to confide in a well-trusted friend or family member about our innermost feelings; however, some are uncomfortable discussing our trials and tribulations or lack social support. For those of us that identify with the latter, Psychologist Dr. James Pennebaker recommends expressive writing about a traumatic experience for 20 minutes per day for four days to see results. Researchers believe that long-term benefits of emotion disclosure may be associated with acceptance, rather than denial, predicting better outcomes when faced with hardships.

2. Affect Labeling

The amygdala is a part of our limbic system associated with emotions, specifically the processing of fear. Affect labeling or, more simply put, labeling your feelings has been proven to reduce emotional arousal. When labeling emotions, another part of your brain, the pre-frontal cortex, is activated. When the pre-frontal cortex is activated, activation in the amygdala is reduced. For example, stating "I'm feeling worried" or "I'm sad" can throw a proverbial wet blanket over the emotion, thereby "dampening" it's intensity. Don't believe me? Try it!

3. Express Gratitude

This strategy may require some of us to dive deep with 2020 being such an emotionally taxing year; however, it can be done with some reflection. When you have nothing to be thankful for, I've always been taught to be grateful for your breath. Your ability to breathe in this moment is worthy of gratitude. Writing letters of appreciation to a friend, family member, co-worker, teacher, or yourself (yes, you deserve your appreciation as well) has a host of psychological and physical benefits. Thankfully, there are even apps available that provide daily reminders to document what you are grateful for each day.

4. Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness may be the buzzword of the century, but it's an effective strategy for cultivating resilience in its truest form. Mindfulness can be defined as "awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally." Many debate if this is a trait or state, but I believe it could be considered a skill to be cultivated by all. Instead of ruminating about the past or worrying about the future, we can be here, now. Consequently, the practice reduces the stress of focusing on events that are out of our control. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a must-have for resilience training.

5. Cognitive Reappraisal

This is a fancy psychological term for reframing the way you perceive an experience. For example, the author's state if you were stuck in traffic, you have the ability to "reappraise" the event as an opportunity to catch up on a podcast or call a friend. Scientific studies that have evaluated participants who use cognitive reappraisal found that these individuals report less negative emotion during a negative experience and experience less negative emotion.