7 Keys to Resilience: Courage Comes from Within

You need to stop and recognize that you’re not alone. Be brave enough to connect with others and lean on good friends, your family, and people who really know how to listen and are able to offer you help.

Reviewed and approved by psychologist Valeria Sabater.

Written by Valeria Sabater

Last update: 01 August, 2022

Do you know the true keys to resilience?

Although resilience is a term that’s deeply rooted in the field of motivational psychology, the word has its origin in physics.

When a material loses its shape due to an impact or a chemical reaction and is able to return to its original shape without breaking or fracturing, this is a clear example of resilience.

This physical property was taken up by psychologists to refer to the fact that humans, too, can carry out this daring action. We can face adversity, overcome it, and even emerge from it stronger in the end.

In today’s article, we invite you to discover seven keys to resilience so you can implement this therapeutic and healing mechanism.

Believe it or not, we’re biologically prepared to “survive” certain things, and our brains can guide us through the process.

It’s a form of rebirth that allows us to get through the moments of darkness and face tomorrow with new hope.

The Keys to Resilience

Today, the concept of resilience is applied to many fields and disciplines.

At the corporate level, for example, it’s a useful way to confront moments of crisis or difficulty. Thus, each team member should be able to analyze the situation and implement new strategies for moving forward.

On a personal and emotional level, however, Sometimes, during moments of crisis, the best opportunities allow you to come out stronger.

Let’s see what factors can help you do this and are the keys to resilience.

1. Connect with your environment

When you’re going through a difficult time, it’s easy to get the feeling that the world is suddenly out of tune. It may feel like everyone else is going in one direction while you’re stuck going the other.

You need to stop and recognize that you’re not alone. Be brave enough to connect with others and lean on good friends, your family, and people who really know how to listen and are able to offer you help.

Accepting help from your surrounding environment allows you to grow stronger, feel safer, make new decisions, and regain hope.

2. Remember that severe pain doesn’t last forever

No one can change what has happened in the past. The facts are what they are and you have every right to feel angry, sad, or rejected.

However, you need to remember that these complex, troubling situations won’t last forever. The pain is not eternal, and every day things will improve.

Instead, you need to let yourself “flow” with life itself. There will be moments of difficulty, moments of opportunity, and moments when you feel authentic happiness.

3. Change is a part of life

Life flows like a river in continuous movement, and this means that change is inevitable. However, holding onto your pain is optional.

Let it go, don’t fall into that trap.

Adversity should open the door to your innate ability to adapt, something that’s hard-wired into all of our brains. Sharpen your emotions in search of new hope, accept everything that has happened, and gradually allow yourself to move forward.

Let the passing of each day invite you to look toward the horizon.

4. Set new goals

There’s no turning back. What happened has happened and you cannot change it. The only option now is to accept it and move on.

The first action you should take to deal with that adversity is to set a goal – propose something simple and within your reach at which to take aim.

Later, you can set more complicated, ambitious goals. However, start out by seeking the easiest, most therapeutic ones: go for a walk, meet new friends, take a trip, and enjoy the small things.

5. Cultivate a positive self image

You know what you look like when you’re suffering, filled with grief, or affected by failure. It’s a familiar image.

Now you need to create a new one.

Developing your self-confidence is key right now, because it’s the way you’ll be able to deal with the day to day, solving problems and trusting your instincts. This is how you go about building your resilience.

6. Keep your perspective on things

Even if you have to confront very painful events, you have to maintain control and perspective. If you feel as though you’ve been abandoned, it doesn’t mean you have no right to be happy again.

If you’ve lost someone, don’t fall into that pit of despair where you refuse to smile or enjoy life. Having a healthy perspective will help heal your heart.

7. Take care of yourself

You have friends, a family, and people who love you and who are there to help you every day. However, the person who should really take care of you is yourself.

Go for a walk, improve your diet, release your emotions through projects, plans, dreams…never stop thinking about your future. 

These are the true keys to resilience.