Resilience and Mental Strength: Warrior Mind Podcast #487

Over six years and going strong!  With over 1M downloads from over 15 countries and 7 continents’…. this is the Warrior Mind Podcast.

In this episode of the Warrior Mind Podcast I’m going to discuss reliance, its association with mental strength and its importance.    

Resilience

“The process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.”

 Key aspects of resilience training:

* Developing an optimistic outlook for the future* Developing solid goals, as well as the desire to accomplish them* Developing our compassion and empathy* Developing our focus on what we can control, rather than what we can’t.

Resilience training involves:

* Understanding and working on our internal locus of control* Developing our emotional regulation and awareness* Developing our self-efficacy* Learning to tolerate ambiguity* Developing realistic optimism

Enjoy this podcast on the resilience and mental strength

More Resilience and Mental Strength

Is Mental Strength Training the Same as Resilience Training?

Not quite, because mental strength and resilience themselves aren’t technically identical.

Mental Strength can be thought of as more akin to ‘Mental Hardiness’, a personality trait. Mental Toughness and Resilience are often used to refer to each other.

Resilience, on the other hand, is more commonly considered a process. Resilience has been defined very similarly by different researchers. These include:

* Resilience as good adaptation to risk exposure* Resilience as a developmental progression to encompass new strengths* Resilience as the possession of social assets, such as close relationships with others

Mental Resilience Training

During MRT, US Army soldiers go through seven different modules that cover three main components

1. Preparation – This covers psychoeducation on the nature of resilience, the mental factors behind it, and how to grow them. These mental factors, or MRT competencies, include:

* Self-awareness* Self-regulation* Mental agility* Optimism* Connections* Character strengths

2. Sustainment – the focus of the Sustainment component is to reinforce and apply the resilience skills covered in the Preparation aspect of the course. Soldiers learn to recognize and anticipate what being deployed can involve psychologically, as well as ways to remain resilient and nurture resilience in peers.

3. Enhancement – based heavily on sports psychology principles, the enhancement component covers one module. Here, MRT teaches goal-setting, confidence-building, energy management, and more.

The Benefits of Resilience

Coping with stress in a positive way is known as resilience, and it has many health benefits. It’s associated with longevity, lower rates of depression, and greater satisfaction with life. There’s a sense of control, and it helps people feel more positive in general.

Likewise, a lack of resilience means that you may not handle stress well in difficult situations.