Overcoming Obstacles
Becca McCabe, MS, LPCC, Five Rivers Mental Health Clinic, LLC
Loss of a job, serious illness, childhood abuse, community violence, natural disasters, war violence, and other traumatic events. These are examples of obstacles people may face over the course of their lives. What empowers people to overcome these obstacles?
Resilience helps individuals to overcome obstacles. What is resilience? It is an ongoing process of adapting well in the face of obstacles and challenges. Sometimes resilience is known as “bouncing back.” Resilience is not trait. It is not something people either have or do not have. Resilience strategies can be learned and developed by anyone.
Research shows that the main factor in resilience is having
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What may work for one person might not work for another. Below is a list of strategies that can be used to build resilience.
Ways to Build Resilience:
Make connections: Relationships with close family, friends, and others is an important part of building resilience. Accepting help from supportive people strengthens resilience. Other ways to make connections include being active in faith-based organizations, civic groups, or other local groups that provide may support.
Focus on what is in your control: How a person interprets and responds to events is something that is within a person’s control. You cannot change the fact that a stressful event happened. Focus on small, subtle changes that demonstrate how you may already feel somewhat better after facing challenging obstacles.
Accept that change is a part of living: Accepting that certain things cannot be changed can help you to focus on the things you can change.
Move towards your goals: Create realistic, achievable goals. Focus on one attainable task each day that will help you move towards your goal.
Take decisive actions: Rather than detaching completely and avoiding problems or stresses, take decisive
Resilience is about how an individual deals, resists, recovers and learns from adversity’s in life. If a child is resilient they are less likely to be damaged as a result of negative experiences and are more likely to learn from and move on. In order for a child to be resilient they need to believe in themselves and have others they can rely on in their lives.
These adaptations to change can either result in positive or negative outcomes. Strategies for successful client resilience within the health care environment are dependent upon the client’s perception of his/her circumstance and support provided by members of the interdisciplinary healthcare team and social support systems within the client’s personal environmental setting. A combination of factors contributes to resilience. Many studies show that the primary factor of resilience is having caring and supportive relationships with family and friends. Relationships that create love and trust, provide role models and offer encouragement and reassurance that help bolster a person 's resilience (American Psychology Association [APA], n.d.).
Resilience is about being independent, standing on your own two feet or taking back the power.
For some people the strong word resilience can impact one’s life in a significant way. Overall, resiliency is having the ability to still enjoy and continue your life with positive, good times, regardless of a hard past or bad experience. It can be shown in various ways throughout a text, including the setting, the plot, and characterization. This is how the texts, The Other Wes Moore, The Art of Resilience, and The Third and Final Continent share their common theme. This theme the three texts convey is that resiliency is vital for a positive as well as successful life.
Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, by Father Gregory Boyle, resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.
Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.
Resilience is the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats and sources of stress. In terms of children, it is how well a child copes with events that happen in their lives such as starting or changing schools, illness or death of a close relative. These events cannot be prevented but can be overcome. Being resilient does not mean that children won't experience difficulty or distress; however child practitioners can help children to manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty and overcome difficulties.
There are numerous points of view on resiliency, as non‑governmental associations (NGOs) perceive that individuals ' capacity to better withstand and recuperate from calamities is basic to maintaining improvement. NGOs, contributors and worldwide reaction groups are attempting to characterize resiliency in their terms. CRS characterizes resiliency as "the capacity of people, communities and institutions to advance integral human development in the face of shocks, cycles and trends" (2014, p.2). The vulnerable individuals themselves best characterize strength and resiliency. What vulnerable individuals accept helps most to their versatility limit is discriminating to current dialogs on resiliency. Contributors and NGOs may have their own meaning of the term; however, an understanding of what it really means to individuals looking to make their community resilient is crucial to outlining successful Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and recovery activities in development, risk reaction and catastrophe recuperation programs (CRS, 2014). The danger of not utilizing the
Resilience, fundamentally, is the ability to bounce back from hardship and the phenomenon of overcoming stress or adversity, for example: personal crises, poverty, mental illness and trauma (Occupational Health & Wellbeing, 2012). This skill can help individuals overcome the most difficult of situations (Occupational Health & Wellbeing, 2012). Resilience theorists generally agree that the presence of protective factors can reduce the effects of exposure to adversity. The more protective factors (or “assets”) available, the more resilient a person will be. Protective factors are conditions or attributes that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and eliminate risk. On the contrary, risk factors are attributes or characteristics
Resilience is a term that is often applied to those who have faced hardship and viewed the experience in a positive light as an opportunity to grow and change for the better (Wagnild & Collins, 2009). The definition however seems to vary from place to place. Ungar et al. (2008) stated “definitions of resilience are ambiguous when viewed across cultures" (p.174) which is why the understanding of resilience may be difficult to capture (as cited in Windle, Bennett & Noyes, 2011). Although the literature agrees on several common themes about resilience there are many varying opinions on how to define the concept or the attributing factors. Earvolino-Ramirez (2007) and
Overcoming adversity is a challenge that everyone has to face. Some good examples of people who overcame adversity are the Boston Marathon runners, John J. Pinder, and Malala Yousafzai. They all had challenges to face, but they never gave up. Overcoming adversity is going to be hard, but the ending will be worthwhile, that’s why patience is needed to overcome adversity. Life is like a roller coaster, full of ups, downs, inside outs, sometimes you may start out slow, but as you go along, you speed up, in adversity, it may take some time to think about how to overcome it, but you’ get the hang of it and will eventually overcome it. Malala was faced with a lot of problems and challenges, but she pulled through and overcame adversity.
Finding ways to overcome an obstacle can be a struggle for many people. It takes resilience to be successful in overcoming obstacles that are external, internal, or habitual. Understanding these few types of obstacles will help. External obstacles are outside of what you can control; such as, the “economy, natural disasters, physical limitations, and the political climate” (Daum, 2013). Internal obstacles are struggles that we are individually responsible for; such as, “debt, cash flow, time availability, needed skills or talent” (Daum, 2013). Habitual obstacles are obstacles that are caused when people get in your way, this can be resolved with we change our behaviors.
When I heard a term called resilience, I have no idea about it and think that it is not related to me. After I had a lecture with a topic resilience. I realize it is necessary and I need to face many adversity in my life. Also, I remember something happened in my past are shown my resilience level. I would like to share the story in my life to show the factors which are indicated in the last part can show resilience level.
First of all, I would like to define what resilience is. Major scholars believe it is the process to recover from trauma, or the ability to respond to adversity. According to Sergeant and Laws-Chapman (2012), resilience refers to “the ability to adapt to adverse conditions while maintaining a sense of purpose, balance, and positive mental and
This article provided new insight and ideas regarding the importance of resilience within the workplace (Harrington, 2012). Harrington defined resilience as "an attitude that enables the individual to examine, enhance and utilise the strengths, characteristics and other resources available to him or her" (Harrington, 2012, p. 2). To me, this definition was powerful and is now posted by my computer at work for reflection during turbulent times. On my desk, I also listed five of the key elements that Professor Derek Mowbray identified as foundations for resilience. Those elements included emotional, spiritual, social, family, and physical influences. I acknowledge that I have much to learn about myself and leadership; however, I feel that articles