Are there people who have a huge ability to overcome very painful setbacks or emotional events?You could say they have a resilient personality, survivors. On the other hand, being faced with adversity does not mean being elastic, this requires high doses. positive attitude, perseverance and integrity.
The loss of a loved one, physical or psychological abuse, natural disasters or failure in certain areas of life are circumstances that put us to the test, you can develop the ability to be strong in dramatic conditions and swim against the current. we know in psychology as a resilient personality.
- There are two types of resilient personality.
- We can differentiate them as the ability to protect one’s identity under pressure under destructive conditions and the ability to maintain an extremely positive attitude in adverse circumstances.
- It is a dynamic process of adaptation to adverse environments and traumatic experiences.
Psychological suffering changes the brain. Maintaining a constant alert state generates amounts of cortisol that, under normal circumstances, are not necessary.
Our alert system needs cortisol to prepare our body for emergencies, but when levels are excessive and constant, growth is hampered and also affects immune responses and attention span.
Testosterone plays a crucial role in chronic stressful situations. These hostile situations result in a considerable reduction in testosterone levels, which in turn reduces the individual’s assertiveness.
Attention is lacking and problems arise in the search for solutions, with little creativity and stereotypical ideas (repetition of models of the lived).
In post-traumatic stress situations, a gradual distinction can be made between non-resilient and resilient personality. There are several degrees between the two ends.
In less resilient personalities, the memory of traumatic memories is reactivated more intensely and frequently, compulsively and in the form of intrusive thoughts, which activate areas of the brain such as locus coeruleus, amygdala, hippocampus and neocortex.
Resilient personality appears to be the result of several processes that neutralize these activations in hostile situations, with dehydroepoandrosterone (DHEA) being primarily responsible for reducing cholesterol activity and inhibiting excess glucocorticoids and glutamate.
In this way heart and ischemic infarctions can be prevented, it has been observed that statistically subjects with higher intellectual capacity and cognitive activity have higher levels of resilience, appear to be able to manage and treat trauma more easily.
Empathy, self-knowledge, sense of humor, a positive approach to situations and awareness of the present are some of the skills that can be seen in resilient people.
They are flexible people who seek meaningful purpose in their lives, have good social interaction skills, and know how to deal with frustration and uncertainty.
Our emotions and the way we view an event are not as conditioned externally as internally. The key is how we interpret what’s happening. Resilience training is about understanding that negative emotions block us and positive emotions drive us to change.
It is about developing the ability to give positive responses in adverse situations, in many cases it is not in our power to change circumstances, but we can develop forces that provide responses to help us reduce discomfort.
There are many steps we can take in this regard, rewrite our history, help others, reduce stress and be mentally willing to reorganize beliefs and goals, changing personal discourse allows us to see the world and see ourselves in a different way.
We need to start seeing conflicts as opportunities for growth. Remembering how we overcome obstacles in the past also creates greater resilience.
Being strong requires great doses of perseverance and confidence in everything we can develop with skill and effort. At the same time, we learn from the past and it allows us to live strong emotions, handling them intelligently.