Resilience is different from endurance

Resilience is no substitute for ensuring a safe workplace.

Individual resilience is often idealized as a desirable employee trait. But, resilience is no substitute for ensuring a healthy workplace. Resilience in an individual worker is not a quality to be exploited or praised instead of providing an environment with safe working conditions (including personal protective equipment), a healthy and sustainable workload, freedom from discrimination, and respectful communication.  

Resilience is not being cheerful all the time.

Resilience is not about staying positive no matter what’s going on, especially when we are facing challenges that require support. If you notice you’re suddenly sad or angry or upset, even if the reason isn’t plainly obvious, you’re not alone. Many of us are feeling sudden waves of sadness, fear, or anxiousness. The idea of ‘positive’ emotions is problematic, since it suggests that there are ‘negative’ emotions too. Sadness, fear and anxiousness may be difficult, but they’re not inherently bad. They just are. People who are resilient have all these emotions too. One difference is that they don’t last as long.  

Resilience is not endurance or strength.

Resilience is bouncing back and rebounding. It’s not gritting our teeth and ‘going for it.’  It’s not foregoing our basic human survival needs for food, water and rest while we ‘suck it up.’ It is not steeling ourselves, or bracing for the marathon. It’s not accepting or ignoring discrimination. Resilience is often compared to an elastic that returns to its original, flexible shape after it’s stretched a bit.  

Resilience is not turning our backs on real problems.

Resilience is not about ignoring or denying that this is a challenging, uncertain and scary time. Emotions come and go. When those waves of emotion hit, know you are not alone. Somatic coaching might be worth a try if you find these emotions lingering, or getting the better of you.  

What resilience really means.

Resilience is a characteristic of our nervous systems, of our physiological make-up. Some of the ways we’re managing now might relate to how we were responding to our stress loads before our communities were hit by COVID-19. The good news is that our nervous systems can change. We can become more resilient than we are today. We can feel greater ease inside, whatever is going on around us. Our actual brain structure can change depending on our experiences. Even as we are overwhelmed with changes and uncertainty, even as we face fear, we can develop new pathways in our nervous systems. Somatic coaching helps us learn and practice skills to help ourselves in the moments we feel unsteady.

Shayna’s coaching enables you to be your own strongest resource, at affordable rates that cost less than most counselling sessions. Employers can also hire Shayna to provide one-on-one online coaching sessions for their teams.