A resilient world

Sometimes it looks like one person experiences all the bad things that can happen to someone. The person can experience the death of a loved one, a setback in their career, a divorce.. and still go on with life as if nothing has happened. This is what we call a resilient person. Resilience is a concept often used to describe someone who can deal with whatever negative events life throws at you. For a long time, a lot of researchers have been trying to strengthen resilience in individuals with depression. Researchers gave resilience training for 8 weeks to people diagnosed with depression and compared this to people who didn’t receive the training.  This training included mindfulness therapy (which focuses on the acceptance and acknowledgment of the present) together with exercise and nutrition. The training focused on strengthening factors that can improve resilience to stressors in life. The results look very promising and suggested that the individuals who received the resilience training showed less depressive symptoms and reported less perceived stress. It also improved workplace productivity.  Although there are probably a lot of other things that might have influenced these results, it still shows that resilience is something that can be strengthened and it can help a lot of people to cope with negative events or emotions that happen to them.

Reference:

Johnson, J. R., Emmons, H. C., Rivard, R. L., Griffin, K. H., & Dusek, J. A. (2015). Resilience Training: A Pilot Study of a Mindfulness-Based Program with Depressed Healthcare Professionals. EXPLORE, 11(6), 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2015.08.002