The Science of Resilience and Coping

Do you find some days harder than others? Life can be unpredictable. Life can also involve hardships and stressors, such as relationship problems, financial stressors, health problems, and more.

Resilify's Science of Resilience and Coping program draws on evidence-based practices and skills to help you develop the skills necessary to adapt to hardships as they come.

Thus, this program helps you to develop the ability to grow from difficult life events, which is what resilience is at its core.

Program Sessions

Session 1: Introduction to Resilience

Overview: Learn about the steps that are involved in building resilience and the benefits that developing this skill can have on your life.

Activities: Practice visualization as a technique to build resilience.

Session 2: Cognitive Approaches to Resilience

Overview: Learn about the building blocks of resilience and how to manage when our brains make it difficult for us to see situations as they really are. Also, learn about how you react to a situation and how that directly relates to your beliefs about the situation through the ABC Model.

Activities: Explore the role of "if-then" planning in your life and how to foster positive emotions.

Session 3: Gratitude

Overview: Gratitude is an expression of appreciation and thankfulness. Learn the ways in which you can practice gratitude to help you appreciate the positive areas of your day and/or your life.

Activities: Studies have found that those who are regularly grateful are happier and more resilient than those who are not. You will engage with writing in a gratitude journal to increase positive emotion, improve self-esteem, better sleep, reduce stress, and promote feelings of happiness.

Session 4: Character Strengths

Overview: Explore the strengths within your character traits as well as how to develop mental resilience.

Activities: Reflect on how you show up in relationships and how you like to show and receive love in your life.

Session 5: Strengths and Virtues

Overview: We all have qualities in ourselves that we consider strengths and weaknesses. Learn about the ways you can employ your strengths and weaknesses.

Activities: Explore how positive thinking can help you understand your emotional attitude by exploring the brighter side of life.

Session 6: Optimism

Overview: Learn about delayed gratification and the concept behind dispositional and attributional optimism.

Activities: Explore how to develop a growth mindset and the difference between your negative and positive affect.

Session 7: Coping

Overview: Learn about different approaches to coping with the challenges life throws our way.

Activities: Avoidance coping is when we cope by changing our behavior to avoid feeling, doing, or thinking about challenging situations. You will explore the ways in which avoidance behaviors or coping manifests in your life.

Session 8: Mindfulness

Overview: Mindfulness is the concept of being fully present and nonjudgmental in the moment. Learn about the three key components to mindfulness: having deliberate awareness, being nonjudgmental and being non-reactive.

Activities: Researchers have found that people who practice mindfulness develop greater resilience, which leads to higher life satisfaction. Grow in your comfort with mindfulness with the activities offered in this session.

References

• Coping and resilience levels of bariatric surgery candidates and affecting factors — Saliha Bozodogan Yesilot PhD, Remziye Yesilkus MSc.
• The relationship between coping strategies and resilience among adolescents with beta-thalassemia major — Ali Mohammad Parviniannasab, Mahnaz Rakhshan, Marzieh Momennasab, Mitra Soltanian, Mostafa Bijani.
• Family support, social capital, resilience and adolescent coping — John Pinkerton, Pat Dolan.
• Inter-relationships between trait resilience, coping strategies, and mental health outcomes in autistic adults — Melanie Muniandy, Amanda L. Richdale, Samuel R. C. Arnold, Julian N. Trollor, Lauren P. Lawson.
• Explorations of Coping Strategies, Learned Persistence, and Resilience in Long-Evans Rats — Kelly G. Lambert, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA 23005.