How can you be resilient and take care of your well-being?

The Resilience-Wellbeing Paradox

Whilst resilience and wellbeing are often uttered in the same breath, in many respects these two concepts are at odds with one another. Of course it depends on your definitions. There are elements that overlap but the ‘energy’ is different. For example, we might say that a ‘sense of purpose’ is true for both… but for resilience, it is active as a driver, whereas for wellbeing, it is a sense of life-satisfaction. If resilience is more ‘get up and go’, then wellbeing is ‘stop and smell the roses’!

Resilience is about mental toughness, strength, bouncing back, getting back up when knocked down, self-discipline, pushing yourself forward, fortune favours the brave, do something every day that scares you, feel the fear and do it anyway, expressing yourself (respectfully) in difficult situations, confidence, motivation and soldiering on! It is related to our ‘sympathetic nervous system’… readying us for action (fight/flight).

Wellbeing is about ‘being well’, welfare, looking after yourself, relaxation, self-care, self-protection, stress avoidance, finding ‘down-time’, knowing your limits, feeling happy, life satisfaction, ‘stopping the world’, being present, meditation and living in the moment. It is related to the ‘parasympathetic nervous system… resting, feeding and digesting.

What if there is an imbalance… too much focus on one at the expense of the other?

Too much resilience focus may feel uncaring, hard, ‘stiff upper lip’, cold, pull your socks up, don’t show/talk about emotion and burnout. Too much wellbeing focus can seem like a lack of boundaries, softening/weakening, being over-protective, risk/stress avoidance (which leads to inability to deal with stressful situations) and not being able to cope with new and different.

Resilience and wellbeing are two sides of a coin… and the name of the coin is ‘psychological health’. In other words, psychological health is a balance (or integration) of resilience and wellbeing. The good news is that by recharging our batteries (wellbeing) we can be ready for what life throws at us (resilience)… which helps us feel empowered and happy. By balancing both, you can create a positive, virtuous circle of psychological health.

How is your balance?

• Are you more focussed on one side or the other?
• Do you give yourself ‘down-time’… to prepare for action?
• Do you get yourself going… and then make time for rest breaks?

Click here to find out how the Imaginarium can help you, your business and your people balance the paradox.