20 Ten Factors of Resilience

Episode 20.  Resilience: Ten Factors

June 15, 2020

Intro: Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem, where you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview.   We are going beyond mere resiliency, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before.  I’m clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski your host and guide, with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  This is episode 20, where we are starting a multi-episode deep dive into resilience and discuss 10 elements that constitute resilience as defined by the general literature.  Today we are going to define resilience and cover 10 primary resilience factors – from a secular perspective.  This is episode 20 entitled Resilience: Ten Factors and it is released on June 15, 2020.  In the next episodes were are going to get much more into how to develop greater resilience.  In the next episode, we are also going to get into a Catholic understanding of resilience that incorporates what we know to be true by our faith.  

But for today, we are starting with how secular psychology defines resilience.  We are looking at the elements that secular psychology states are the factors of resilience.  We want a solid conceptual base, we are being catholic with a small c here, meaning universal.  I’m drawing from many sources here, but there’s one book that stands out, one book that I’m using in particular for this episode, because of how it’s based in research and its simple, effective organization.  It includes insights from neuroscience research, and it has great illustrative stories, so it’s more than readable, it’s engaging.  The book is “Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges by Steven Southwick and Dennis Charney.  The book is now in its second edition and I like their structure and their emphasis on looking for research-based evidence, not just their personal experience.  

So what is resilience?  What does secular psychology mean by resilience?  Let’s define resilience.   It’s definition time.  [Cue sound effect]

The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress— such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences.” 

Let’s break that down.   In the secular world, resilience is about adapting yourself to life’s demands, it’s about handling the challenges and curve balls that life throws at you with poise.  It’s about recovering previous levels.  It’s about getting up as many times as you are knocked down by dangers and misfortunes, it’s about journeying on under the load of troubles and difficulties that life brings us.  It’s about not succumbing to failure, not collapsing under stress, not being destabilized by hardships and tough situations.

The word resilience derives from the present participle of the Latin verb resilire, meaning "to jump back" or "to recoil."

The concept of psychological resilience draws from physics.  In physics, resilience is the ability of an elastic material (such as rubber) to absorb energy when it is deformed by some agent and release that energy as it springs back to its original shape.  

Imagine a racquetball flying back to the player, [cue sound] who strikes the ball with the racquet, squeezing the ball, flattening the rubber.  The ball absorbs the energy of the swing and then in its resilience, it launches off the racquet, discharging all that energy as it flies away.  

What resilience is not:  Misconceptions that people have.  Being resilient does not mean you won’t struggle, suffer or experience adversity.  It also doesn’t mean that hardships and challenges don’t affect you.  It’s not stoicism and it’s not being numb or nonreactive.  It’s not about not having needs.  

Resilience is adapting well, regaining your shape after you’ve been knocked hard, just like that racquetball springing back into shape.  It’s not a fixed trait – it is something that can be learned, practiced, improved.  And that is what this series on resilience is all about – it’s about helping you become more resilient in the face of this coronavirus crisis, so you can be loved and you can love God and others.  

So what are the 10 factors of resilience, according to Southwick and Charney?  Let’s just list them, and then we will go into more depth on each one.  Remember, I am using their language here and keeping their focus on a general audience.  In future episodes, we are going to ground the concept of resilience in a Catholic worldview and we are going to really tweak these.  These will be in the show notes on our website, so you can find them there, no need to take notes.  Really listen in, take these in.  In future episodes in this sequence, we will get much more into how do you cultivate these factors, how do you bring them together.  Right now, we are pursuing understanding.  

1.      Optimism:  The Belief in a brighter future – that things will turn out well.   With enough hard work, I will succeed.  Can’t be a blind optimism – not a naïve optimism.  Looking on the bright side of life.  Dwell on the positive.  Glass half empty vs. half full.  

2.      Facing Fear:  Not avoiding fear.  Southwick and Charney are really talking about courage here.  Not just giving into fear.  Courage is not the absence of fear – it’s overcoming fear, it’s not letting fear master you.  But it’s not just the development of virtue.  There are test techniques that help with this and we will get into those techniques.  Facing fear with friends, colleagues and with spiritual support – general audience, but here is the spiritual entering in.  

3.      A Moral Compass, Ethics, and Altruism:  Doing What is Right  -- Southwick and Charney don’t have much patience or acceptance for moral relativism.  They advise having a moral compass and consulting it.  Getting outside yourself, not being self-absorbed.  Here they focus in on courage again.  Having a backbone.  They discuss how sometimes the choices are extremely difficult.  

4.      Religion and Spirituality: Drawing on Faith – really interesting in a book for general audience.  Especially helpful in fearing death. – This is not the end.  

5.      Social Support  -- can’t be isolated, can’t be alone.  We need to reach out.  Social support protects against physical and mental illness.  Social neuroscience.  

6.      Role Models:  We all need them.  We can’t raise ourselves.  We need mentor, guides to help us find our way.  Parents, other relatives, teachers, coaches, friends, colleagues, even children – our own or others.  People that show us the way.  Breaking out from the effects of negative role models, not imitating our parents or others clo...