What is resilience?
To understand what resilience is, we can consider some key concepts:
- Your resilience can be understood as the amount of energy that has been stored in your internal battery.
- The greater your capacity and resilience, the more energy you will have available.
- Having more energy gives you a greater ability to self-regulate your emotions, thoughts and behaviors, so you can choose how to respond instead of reacting automatically.
- Learning and applying heart-mind coherence techniques can increase your energy reserves, thus increasing your resilience.
- Sealing energy “leaks” throughout the day so you don’t waste it is the key to building and maintaining your resilience. Getting enough sleep to recharge your inner battery is also essential for building your resilience.
What is resilience and what does it have to do with energy management?
You’ve probably experienced times when you feel like you don’t have much energy and may have used phrases like: “I’m exhausted” or “I can’t get enough of myself” to describe the feeling of being tired. It’s common that when you Energy is low and you feel exhausted, it is difficult for you to think clearly, perform tasks well and recover, all of which is an indicator that your resilience is low.
So what exactly is resilience and how can you have more of it?
The definition of resilience offered by the HeartMath Institute (Institute dedicated to the research of balance between the physical, mental, emotional systems, through coherence between the heart brain and the brain brain), gives us a broader understanding of the term: Resilience is the ability to prepare for, recover from, and adapt to a situation of stress, challenge, or adversity.
The key word in the definition is ability, which refers to the amount of something you have. You can think of your current resilience as the amount of energy you have stored in your internal battery and draw on to handle your daily challenges and tasks. Resilience is the energy you have available to use not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually. When you have a high level of resilience or a fully charged internal battery, you have a greater ability, which is necessary to stay calm, think clearly and regulate emotions; also so that you don’t overreact.
On the other hand, similar to a car battery that has died and is impossible to start, when your internal battery is depleted, there is no energy from which to “start” the actions you need, making it difficult for you to offer the best of you, that you respond appropriately to difficult and everyday situations. Which can also end up draining your energy even more.
Knowing how to avoid energy leaks is also important for building and maintaining your reserves. Having a good amount of stored energy improves your ability to maintain your focus, mental clarity, and emotional solidity throughout the day.
A very important way to renew energy and recharge the internal battery is to have enough uninterrupted and regenerative sleep. Sleep is one of the most basic ways the body replenishes its energy levels. Sometimes, due to the same energy drain, it is difficult to get good quality sleep.
By building your resilience you will be better prepared, you will adapt more quickly, you will make smarter decisions and you will remain clear and calm in the face of situations that arise throughout the day. Having greater resilience does not mean that you will not encounter challenging situations, what it means is that you will have an internal capacity that will give you the ability, energy and resolve, to handle anything that arises.
Learning and applying heart-mind coherence techniques can increase your energy reserves, giving you more fuel for when you need it. A key to building and maintaining resilience is managing how you spend and renew energy. The goal is not to waste energy unnecessarily and to effectively replenish your reserves.
Dimensions of Resilience
There are four dimensions of resilience: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. To be fully resilient, it is important to pay attention to all four dimensions because each one affects the others.
Some people are naturally more resilient in one dimension than another. Those people who can better regulate their emotions and maintain calm and composure under pressure are considered to have more emotional resilience. However, it is important to take into account that people who are more resilient in one dimension may find themselves low in their general state of resilience if they allow their energy or internal battery to drain in one of the other dimensions.
It’s not just large energy expenditures that drain your battery, more energy is actually lost due to the accumulation of subtle feelings such as worry, sadness or frustration, which at the end of the day become large energy drains. Some of the hormones produced during a stressful interaction remain in your system for many hours and can affect your ability to get restful sleep and can also decrease your power to concentrate and think clearly.
The goal is for you to be able to build and maintain your resilience by using heart-mind coherence techniques, so you can perform better throughout the day, not only at work, but in all aspects of your life.
Becoming more emotionally intelligent about how you spend and renew your energy can help you build and sustain your resilience so that you are less likely to fall into the stages of physical, mental, or emotional exhaustion.
Building and sustaining your resilience can also help you end the day less exhausted, allowing you to enjoy your life and relationships more.
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