Being more Resilient
Resilience is like a rubber band that when stretched bounces back to its original shape. If you are resilient, you handle problems better – while others are frozen by stress, you are able to take control. You are proactive and future focussed, because negativity doesn’t overwhelm you. Building a resilient attitude means becoming more optimistic.
The ‘can do’ attitude that comes from optimism is often self-fulfilling. Very little progress would be made if everyone sat around fuelled by negative thoughts, like “I’m hopeless” or “I will never be able to do this”. As Thomas Edison said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
Techniques to Increase Tolerance and Resilience
Scheduling Activities
Useful to maintain activity level when condition is acute
Schedule activities to ration/conserve energy
Working to Quota
Useful to increase activity level and build tolerance
'do no more on a good day, no less on a bad day’. Disrupt learning relationship between symptom (pain/fatigue/stress/worry) and activity
Planning Activity
Useful for low mood, less motivation
'rewards’ completion of difficult or challenging activities with pleasurable ones