We must cut our coat according to our cloth and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.” – William Ralph Inge

There is no avoiding the fact that adult life, whether the professional, circumstantial, or personal area of it, comes with periods of stress. Resilience is crucial to getting through these periods in a successful way. Indeed, resilience is defined as one’s ability to adapt to stressful situations, to retain physiological wellbeing, and to come out of the other side having grown in some sense.

There are many ways to bolster your resilience and to be more equipped to adapt when life becomes hectic and demanding. Here are some thoughts on how best to adapt to stress using mindfulness as your tool.

1. Meditation

Times of high stress often involve a mind that is far to full of far too many thoughts, problems, fears, opinions, musical earworms that you have no idea how they made their way into your mind-stream… all sorts. Meditation, in all its forms, is a way to cut through all of that mental noise and focus your attention on a single thing; an image, the sounds of the world around you, the breath (we’ll come to that later). Meditation helps you to adapt as it gives you the mental space to arrange, discard, and troubleshoot all the things that are on your mind, aiding you to plot a clear path through the situation.

2. Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is another great way to focus your mind on something other than the brain jumble piling up in your head. Mindful eating is all about being conscious of what you are eating. It is about focusing on the sensations of it; the aroma, the texture, the temperature, the taste. Once again, this act will have you refreshed and thinking more clearly by the end of it.

3. Exercise

Exercise is good for you. Who knew, eh? Of course, it makes you stronger and fitter, gives you improved blood flow (great for the brain), and all-round better physical resilience. In terms of mental resilience, however, it is brilliant for making you feel good. It makes you feel more positive, inspired, and mentally clear. This is because exercise manages stress hormones, releases physical tension (which is often a knock-on effect of mental tension), and increases endorphin levels.

4. Being Conscious of Your Inner Life

Simply being conscious of your feelings and how certain events and subjects trigger them is very helpful for resilience. The more familiar you are with your own emotions, the better you become at managing them, and not leaving them unaddressed for longer than is ideal. In order to do this, it helps to get in the habit of checking in with yourself regularly (daily even) and reviewing how the events of a day have affected your inner life.

5. Body Scan

Lie down on the floor or a bed on your back and close your eyes. Bring your attention to your body and concentrate on individual areas, one at a time. Whenever you come across a particularly tight or tense area, pause and direct your breath towards it until it releases. Again, this focus work helps to release a lot of the tension around stressful situations.

6. Returning to the Breath

The simplest thing you can do in a stressful moment, a thing that takes no time at all and can be done anywhere, is to return to the breath. It is, perhaps, the simplest form of meditation there is, and it’s amazing how effective it can be. Stop. Close your eyes. Focus on the breath, but do not amend the breath. Simply notice it. Focus on it solely for a few minutes to create am ounce of calm and clarity.

7. Focusing on a Finite Memory Exercise

This is a personal invention (as far as I know). My job, as a freelance creative writer, very rarely has finite answers. Therefore, finite thinking is also a rarity. What I mean by this is that everything I produce is subjective, and there is never a right or wrong answer, as everything comes from my imagination. Therefore, when overwhelmed, I like to focus on some facts. A list of facts. At the moment, I’m learning all the British Prime Ministerial administrations since World War 1 in order. I am also now trying to memorize the years they were active and the parties that made up those governments. Sounds weird, I know. Intense, perhaps. Maybe you think it’s boring. However, I sometimes need to shift my brain from an exhausted creative space to a fact based space in order to reset my mind. Maybe this will help you too.

 

By Chris Thomson

 

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