Difficulties are an inevitable part of life. We all have them, and sometimes even create them! As human beings we possess a natural resilience, but there are skills and tools that we can learn to make us more resilient in even the toughest of times. A happy life doesn’t necessarily mean one that is free from difficulties. Stress, pain, challenge, and loss are all part of life, and being able to effectively deal with them is an essential part of experiencing a happier life. As pharmacists, who among us do not experience a variety of stressors, large or small, on a daily basis, and being able to effectively deal with them is a key skill to boosting our wellbeing.

There is no one definition of the word resilience in psychology, but most experts agree it consists of our ability to successfully cope with, adapt to, and persevere in the face of challenges. These challenges can vary from simple everyday stresses to more difficult life events and traumas. To you and me that can be anything from difficult customers, staffing issues, PCRS frustrations, all the way up to financial difficulties, relationship breakup, grief and loss. Experiencing difficulties can throw us off kilter, and resilience is the process by which we can get back into balance. Inherent in the process is a belief that things can, and will, get better and there are things we can do to make a difference.

Let’s start with the fact that we are all resilient. This isn’t a rare quality reserved for the superhuman amongst us, but a natural human state. Otherwise, as a species we simply wouldn’t be here. Many experts describe resilience as ‘ordinary magic’ something we all have. We may vary in how naturally resilient we are, but research clearly shows that it is not a fixed state but comprises of a set of skills, mindsets and behaviours that are teachable.

The benefits of investing some time into learning these skills are that irrespective of what life throws at us we become far better able to cope, or even thrive, in the face of such adversities. In essence we can’t predict or control the twists and turns that life sometimes takes but we can build our skills and nurture our resources to help us respond flexibly, deal with challenges effectively, recover more quickly and perhaps even learn and grow in the process. So, whether that’s dealing with a medication error, a PSI inspection, staff shortages during a period of high workload, or a competitor pharmacy opening up a few doors down the street, increased resilience simply means being better able to cope.

Resilience is not a single thing but is a construct, a recipe, containing a number of different ingredients. An acronym I use to remember the various ingredients is A-TEST with each letter standing for a different essential ingredient of the recipe.

Awareness

If we are not aware that we are in difficulty, or not coping well, then we can’t change. Key to our resilience is building a level of awareness around our thought patterns, our emotional state, our physiology, and our responses. We face a modern epidemic of busyness, where we are all on the treadmill of life: running, racing, and chasing, attempting to make everything bigger, faster and stronger that it was last year. This results in a lack of self-awareness. Add to that the fact that we live in the age of distraction where technology has stripped us of our ability to pause and just be. The result of this is that many of us experience symptoms of stress, get caught in thinking traps, lack fresh perspectives, and get stuck in mental ruts for weeks, months or even years without being aware of it, until something happens, often a health crisis, that forces us to stop, pause, and reassess our lifestyle.

“ Resilience is not a single thing but is a construct, a recipe, containing a number of different ingredients.”

Thoughts

Building up our self-awareness allows us to hit the pause button and ask what is going on with our thoughts. This is crucial because our thoughts lead to our actions, and our actions determine our results. Quite often when we are stressed or depleted we fall into thinking traps, which are errors in our logic or reasoning, we get stuck in a particular perspective and lose the ability to see things from other viewpoints, or our inner critic can become hyperactive. Having the ability to firstly become aware of our thought processes and secondly the agility to change them to more helpful thoughts is key to our psychological resilience. For example, instead of focusing on the disappointment of losing a long-standing patient, can we view this as an opportunity to create space for a new patient who is in need of our expertise?

Emotions

When it comes to our emotions, once again self-awareness is key. Do we have the ability to tune in to how we are feeling? Do we have the vocabulary to describe our emotions? A recent study of over 7,000 people shows that on average people can identify as few as three emotional states; happiness, sadness and anger. An important aspect of psychological resilience is the ability to not just notice, but also regulate our emotional state. Once again this is important because our emotional state has a profound effect on how we interpret and interact with our challenges and stressors. Just think of how you deal with a difficult staffing issue for example, on a day that you are already stressed, anxious, or worried, compared to on a day where you are calm, relaxed, and at ease.

And so a lot of resilience consists of the ability to self-regulate your thoughts, emotions and physiology. Having the self-awareness to recognise you are stressed, anxious, not coping well, and then the ability to down regulate. The next two ingredients in the A-TEST model focus not on how we can be agile with unhelpful states, but how we can bring all that’s best in us to our challenge.

Strengths

Sometimes it takes tough times to show us what we are really made of. There is an increased focus on the value of challenges to help build and nurture ‘character’. However, with resilience training we don’t wait until we face difficulties to discover what’s best about ourselves. There are many strengths test available, all of which show us how our brains are wired to perform at our best. When we are aware of and actively use our strengths we create a scenario where the best version of us shows up to face and overcome our challenges. When we better understand our strengths and weaknesses, it helps to build confidence in our capabilities, find creative ways around problems, and clarifies for us when we need the assistance of others. If, for example, social intelligence is a top skill for you, and you find yourself in a situation where you are experiencing financial issues, you will be best served using your innate ability to connect with others to overcome your challenge, while seeking the assistance of an accountant if finances are a weak spot for you.

Tribe

In tough situations it’s usually better together. Feeling we have social support is an important ingredient of resilience. Knowing that there are people we can turn to when we need them buffers us against stress, helps us deal with anxiety, and come through even major traumas. Resilient people rarely face difficulties alone if they can avoid it. Actively seeking support from those close to us, or professionals, is associated with better outcomes.

Resilience experts also highlight the value of having resilience role models or ‘A Resilience Hero’. This can be someone known to you personally or individuals you admire from media, history, or fiction. Observing how they have dealt with problems can act as a virtual guide for our own situation and give pointers to how we can best cope with our own challenges.

Bruce Lee famously said “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”. Challenge, stress, and difficulty are an inevitable part of life and can run the full spectrum from minor irritations to major life changing events: difficult customers or staff issues, to financial collapse or serious health challenges. Resilience, put simply, is a key life skill that ensures that whatever life throws at us, we are far better equipped to cope with, and perhaps even grow from, such events.

Séamus Ruane is a community pharmacist and Positive Psychology Practitioner. Visit www. iThrive.ie for more information.