Resilience Resources

Please share & link to this page if you find the following resources useful.

In Equilibrium Resilience Resources

Find our own blog articles about resilience on our website here https://www.in-equilibrium.co.uk/tag/resilience-resources/

General Resilience Resources

We hope you find the following resilience resources interesting.  We have tried to focus on articles which give useful, usable information and tips on how to improve your resilience.  There are a few links to material positioned elsewhere on this website but mainly these articles are ones that we have found over the course of our work in resilience and thought they were too good to keep to ourselves!

We would like to encourage you to link/share this page and spread the word that resilience is something that can be learned and the first step is becoming more aware of what it is.  Hopefully, some of these articles will help with that.

Ashridge Business School: Building personal resilience at work
A paper which summarises the importance and benefits of resilience at work.  It includes details of a study which was undertaken to develop an understanding of personal resilience that could be used to develop training to enhance the resilience of staff at work.

Boost Emotional Resilience: 10 Research-backed tips
Including facing your fears, the importance of a moral compass, having resilient role models and keeping your brain strong.

Building a Resilient Workforce in the Face of Flux
If you are a reader of our popular bi-monthly newsletter, you may have seen this paper already, as it was popular when we highlighted it as a resource.  It asks if organisations are equipped to thrive in an environment now characterised by change and uncertainty.  There is an interesting infographic about counting the cost of 5 years of change, and it ends with a section on strategic workforce planning.

Building Resilience in Children
Focused more on birth to 6 years, but perhaps of interest to all ages, this pamphlet looks at areas such as building caring relations, being a positive role model, developing self-control and developing thinking skills.

Building Resilience Report: Five Key Capabilities
Produced in Sept 2014 and written by Dan Lucy, Meysam Poorkavoos and Arun Thompson, this paper sums up the results of an extensive literature review and a survey of contemporary UK Managers in the production of a personal resilience model based on the following five key capabilities: Perspective, Emotional Intelligence, Purpose Values & Strengths, Connections and Managing physical energy.

Emotional  Resilience Workbook
Practical guidance in developing resilience.

Employee Resilience: An evidence review
Resilience is an individual's ability to recover from difficulties or stay well in the face of adversity. In a work setting, this translates as an employee having the capacity to thrive, rather than just survive, in high stress environments. Naturally, some people will be more resilient than others, however, the onus must not simply be put on employees to ‘buck up’ and ‘be resilient’. Produced by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Enhancing Emotional Resilience of Social Workers
A report by the University of Edinburgh focussing on the emotional resilience of Social Workers in their challenging organisational settings.

Resilience Facts
This Conference paper by Donald Meichenbaum, PhD explores what factors contribute to resilience. Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress. Resilience is not a trait that individuals either have or do not have. Resilience involves behaviours, thoughts and accompanying feelings that can be nurtured, developed and learned.  It contains lots of interesting information including the fact that individuals who are low in resilience are at risk for experiencing stress, depression, anxiety and interpersonal differences.  It looks at evidence of resilience in returning service members and their family members, as well as evidence of resilience in civilian populations.  There are several excellent resources including “Prescription for a resilient life”, “How to create a healing story” and questions to help build  “My personal resilience plan”.

Resilience Grit Resources
This page provides a curated collection of videos, interviews, and articles from around the web for adults looking to build resilience and grit in young people.  The page is divided up into the following sections Nurturing Resilience, Fostering Grit, Teaching Growth Mindset, Managing Stress, Learning From Failure, Responding to Trauma and Tragedy

Resilience: Parent Information Handout
A summary of the main aspects of resilience with reference to being a parent and supporting your children towards being more resilient.  The article, used in child care centres in Canada, breaks resilience down into 7 main abilities: Being in charge of our emotions, Controlling our impulses, Analysing the cause of problems, Maintaining realistic optimism, Having empathy for others, Believing in our own competence, and Reaching out.

Resilience Training Development and Impact
Details about the ideas that inspired us here at In Equilibrium to develop a Resilience Skills training course.

Road to Resilience
An article by the American Psychological Association about developing your own road map to help you adapt to life changing situations and emerge stronger and more resilient.

Special Issue Article Strengths-Based Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy: A Four-Step Model to Build Resilience
Aimed at clinicians, this article describes a four-step model to help clients build on their positive qualities including finding ways to search for hidden strengths in everyday experiences.

Supporting Employee Resilience: Guidance for Line Managers
People professionals and line managers play critical roles in influencing how resilient employees are. This guide explores why your behaviour as a manager directly affects your team. It also outlines how other factors – such as building employees’ confidence, optimism and sense of coherence – can help them become as resilient as possible.

The Resilience Prescription by Dr Dennis Charney
The subject of personal resilience broken down into 10 parts including 2 general principles.  A simple guide outlining the areas to work on.

The Wellbeing and Resilience Paradox
This think piece from the Young Foundation explores questions about the relationship between wellbeing and resilience.  Looking at what aspects of our lives contribute to greater wellbeing and resilience, who is faring better and who is vulnerable. From a community and individual perspective.

In Equilibrium YouTube Channel – Resilience Resources Playlist

The sections below are divided between various resilience skills:

Acceptance

Acceptance with Resilience – Living with Chronic Pain
Although this article is about living with chronic pain, it offers many insights which we can all relate to.  Lynn Webster MD is an expert in the field of chronic pain management and at the beginning of this article makes the following observation:

“It seems that one of the major factors determining the quality of recovery for someone who has suffered this kind of traumatic injury is the attitude that the person chooses to adopt once he or she has had a chance to adjust to life as an amputee.  I believe this research regarding landmine survivors offers a crucial insight for people living with chronic pain.”

The article goes on to make us see that we all have a choice as to whether we accept our position with resignation or resilience.

Stress, resilience and the power of positive acceptance
This article discusses the concept of “acceptance” and the fact that it is generally associated with resigning ourselves to situations or not trying to change them and this is often seen as weak.

“Accepting what is” is very different. It means not wishing something was ALREADY different. Wishing things were already different is wishing for the impossible. Almost all unhappiness, dissatisfaction and stress involves wanting something to be already different. The only exception is worrying about the future. “Accepting what is” is helpful in any challenging situation, whether or not we can immediately change it. When we “accept what is” we can focus only on what we need to do to resolve the situation or improve the future.

 

Boundaries

Attachment Re-visited: 7 Red Flag Signs of Poor Boundaries
This article, by Támara Hill, focuses on the link between poor emotional attachment and poor boundaries. It is important to be able to identify when your boundaries need to be adjusted in your relationships (personal and professional) and Támara has developed a list of signs that you may need to employ stricter boundaries.

Here are links to some of our own articles and videos about boundaries in resilience:

Resilience at Work: Setting Boundaries

Switching Off After Work: Boundaries

Top Tips for Setting Boundaries at Work

 

Empathy

Can Reading Make You Happier? 
A discussion about Bibliotherapy and how reading books can improve social perception and empathy.  A 2011 study published in the Annual Review of Psychology,  showed that when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves.

Develop the Ability to Empathise with Others
People with poor people skills can often find themselves in the middle of unnecessary conflict. In this article, Ruth Hill and the Mind Tools Team explain how you can improve your soft skills by developing the ability to empathise with others.

Empathy according to Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s description of this emotion which is often referred to as “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes”

Empathy as a Tool for Effective Leadership
A white paper produced by the Centre for Creative Leadership which examines the link between empathy and performance.  Making the clear statement that empathy, like the other resilience skills, can be learned.

Empathy Can Change Your Life
An infographic which looks at how empathy helps and ways to inject some into your life.

Empathy in the Workplace
A brief article about empathy in the workplace.

Is Empathy an Essential Tool in Today’s Workplace?
A video clip discussing how empathy in the workplace can revolutionise business. Is this the dawn of the empathy era? Business leaders discuss why they believe empathy is an essential tool in the corporate world and how it can open the door to profit, wellbeing and a happier workplace.

 

Impulse Control

Evaluating Impulse Control
A sample of activities and exercises, courtesy of YouthLight Inc, to help people assess their ability to use impulse control in various settings and to begin to feel excited for potential improvement.

The Marshmallow Test
The Marshmallow Test review – if you can resist, you will go far. Do you take your gratification instantly or defer it? And why does it matter? An article by Zoe Williams, The Guardian, discussing how American psychologist Walter Mischel tests your willpower.

 

Locus of Control

Internal versus External Locus of Control
A brief summary of internal and external loci of control and how they impact on resilience.

Video (5 mins) about Locus of Control
A 5-minute video which explains and gives examples of the difference between an internal and an external locus of control.

Wikipedia’s description of locus of control
In personality psychology, locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them.

Mindfulness

Our list of mindfulness resources are now on their own page here

 

Optimism

Practical Suggestions for Developing a Workplace with Optimism
The focus of this paper, featured in the International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, is to give practical suggestions for creating a workplace that is conducive to being confident, hopeful, optimistic and resilient, thus promoting a sense of well-being.

The Relationship Between Optimism and Health
Optimism is a tendency to expect good things in the future. This literature review demonstrates that optimism is a mental attitude which heavily influences physical and mental health, as well as coping with everyday social and working life.

 

Problem Solving

A Resource to Aid Problem Solving and Analytical Skills
This article by the University of Kent Careers and Employability Service is aimed at students and graduates seeking employment.  However, it is a useful resource for anyone wishing to improve their problem solving and analytical skills.

Problem Solving - Tackling Practical Problems
TalkPlus have produced this 6-step workbook to help tackle practical problems which, if avoided or ignored, can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, low or anxious.

 

Reframing

Framing and Reframing Thoughts when you find yourself in an unhelpful state of mind
‘Reframing helps you put events and circumstances into a different context that is more favourable.’ In this post on IQ Matrix, Adam Sicinski looks at Framing and Reframing Your Thoughts. Adam outlines clear examples of reframing when faced with a problem or an unhelpful state-of-mind.

Unhelpful Thinking Styles information sheet
Available to download courtesy of Psychology Tools, this information sheet gives details of 10 common cognitive distortions.

 

Regulation of Emotions

Regulating Emotions Self-Help Exercise Sheet
A brief exercise sheet which provokes thinking around emotion regulation.

Research on the Psychology of Emotion Regulation
This article, (in a pdf download), by Sander L. Koole, V University Amsterdam, reviews modern research on the psychology of emotion regulation.

 

Self-Awareness

Ted talk: The gift and power of emotional courage, Susan David
"The conventional view of emotions as good or bad, positive or negative, is rigid. And rigidity in the face of complexity is toxic. We need greater levels of emotional agility for true resilience and thriving."  In this insightful talk, Susan David talks candidly about her move beyond the rigidity of denial into what she calls emotional agility.

The Importance of self-awareness, and how to become more self aware
This post by Thorin Klosowski, is entitled ‘The Importance of Self-Awareness, and How to Become More Self-Aware.’  Thorin explains that the more you know about yourself, the better you are at adapting life changes that suit your needs.

 

Self-care habits

Building Healthy Self-Care
To experience a high level of mental health and resilience each of us needs to meet certain emotional needs.  Leaving them unmet is a major contributor to emotional and mental distress.  The information in this article is based on the pioneering work of an organisation called the ‘Human Givens Institute.’

Self-Care Starter Kit, University of Buffalo, School of Social Work
The University of Buffalo, School of Social Work has a number of resources relating to self-care which are useful for both students and professionals. The information ranges from an introduction to self-care, to developing a plan and exercises and activities to help you flourish.

Taking Better Care of Yourself
This feature by Alexandra Duron, entitled,  ‘25 Science-Backed Ways to Change Your Life by Taking Better Care of Yourself,’  includes strategies to help reduce stress, boost happiness and improve total health.

The Self-Care Toolkit
This ‘Self-Care Toolkit’ has been developed by Pete Moore who has persistent pain, asthma and osteoarthritis, along with the help of Dr Frances Cole, GP.  A persistent health problem can be difficult to understand and manage on an everyday basis. The self-management toolkit is a simple information booklet that could provide you with some handy tips and skills to support you along the way to manage your health and your condition.

 

Self-esteem

How to Increase Your Self Esteem
This booklet, produced by Mind, is entitled ‘How to increase your self-esteem.’  The content includes strategies to help you challenge negative feelings and beliefs you hold about yourself. It explains where these beliefs come from, how they become fixed and gives suggestions to help you change them.

Improving Self-Esteem – Accepting Yourself
The Centre for Clinical Interventions produced this module entitled ‘Improving self-esteem – Accepting Yourself’, which contains useful activities and worksheets. ‘Battling against some of the negative things you say to yourself is one path to overcoming low self-esteem. However, another path is to promote balanced evaluations of yourself. This means noticing and acknowledging the positive aspects of yourself, and behaving like someone who has positive qualities and is deserving of happiness and fun.’

Self-Esteem – Self-Help Guide
This self-help guide created by the Department of Psychological Services & Research, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, looks at what constitutes self-esteem; motivation to change; challenging your negativity; changing behaviour and how your level of self-esteem varies throughout life.

 

Self-efficacy

Questions and Prompts to Measure Self-Efficacy
This document, compiled by a Research Team at UCL, provides guidance material to assist Health Trainer Services in assessing clients’ confidence and beliefs in their ability to achieve their health goals – that is, their ‘self-efficacy’.  The document contains questions and prompts which can be used to measure self-efficacy during a consultation.

Self-Efficacy and Health Behaviour Theories
This study examines the Self-Efficacy and Health Behaviour Theories.  According to Social Cognitive Theory, a personal sense of control facilitates a change of health behaviour.  This research looks at perceived self-efficacy in relation to physical exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption and other health issues.

The Importance of Self-Efficacy in Academic Motivation
This article, written by Barry J. Zimmerman of the Graduate School and University Center of City, University of New York, outlines the importance of self-efficacy and in particular, the role of self-efficacy in academic motivation.

 

Self-talk

Having Good Thoughts 
This fact sheet from ReachOut.com entitled ‘Self-talk – having good thoughts’, explains how positive self-talk will help boost your confidence, build your self-esteem and make you feel better about yourself.

Learning to be Your Own Best Friend
This article on the “Wikihow” website contains scenarios and practical exercises you can use to improve your self-talk.
‘It is mental discipline to keep certain thoughts out of your head and put certain thoughts in your head. You have conscious control over that.’

What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means
Interesting article from the Harvard Business Review by Growth Mindset expert, Carol Dweck.  In the introduction, she explains succinctly the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset.  “Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning. When entire companies embrace a growth mindset, their employees report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive far greater organizational support for collaboration and innovation. In contrast, people at primarily fixed-mindset companies report more of only one thing: cheating and deception among employees, presumably to gain an advantage in the talent race.”

 

Social Support

Relationship between Social Support and Physical Health
Corey M. Clark’s paper (Rochester Institute of Technology) entitled “Relations Between Social Support and Physical Health“, discusses the implication of social support and people’s physical health, divided into three age groups: adolescences, middle-aged adults, and older adults.

Social Support and Resilience to Stress
A review article which aims to summarise key studies on social support in the context of resilience to stress and explore possible brain mechanisms mediating social support’s positive influence on mental health outcomes.

 

Staying Power

Harnessing willpower to meet your goals
An article by the American Psychological Association which includes strategies to build self control.

Is willpower limited?
Interesting article about the belief that willpower is limited and the impact this limiting belief has on your actual willpower.  The article encourages using exercises to teach people non-limited theory and effective self-regulatory strategies, arguing that this could increase their success as they face stressful demands and strive to accomplish their goals.

Resilient willpower
This post by Adam Sicinski outlines strategies which, with regular practice, will help you develop ‘Resilient Willpower. ‘  According to Sicinski, cultivating resilience and willpower is about having the courage to make the toughest of decisions in the face of adversity.

 

Additional Resources Pages

Resilience Training Courses

 


Please Note: The information in this website is for general guidance and is not legal advice. Please be aware that some of the articles mentioned on the resources pages originate from countries with different legal requirements from those in the UK.

Equilibrium Associates Limited (In Equilibrium) will not accept liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this website. We are not responsible for claims brought by third parties arising from your use of in-equilibrium.co.uk

 

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