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 We all face stress, upsets and difficult periods as we go through life. But we can improve our ability to deal with the ups and downs of our existence by developing a capacity we could call 'resilience'. Building our capacity for resilience doesn't mean that our problems will automatically disappear or that we'll ignore them, but it could enable us to handle future stress better, put things into perspective and help us enjoy life more. The links and resources below explore the idea of resilience in more detail and provide lots of practical ideas on how you can build it more into your life.
- Building resiliance - a guide from a mental health association in Australia, exploring the idea of reslience and giving some practical tips on how you can build your reslience, including good ideas like 'Do one thing now you've been putting off'.
- How to overcome fear and anxiety - a free podcast from the Mental Health Foundation showing how we can develop this important part of resilience in our lives.
- This paper explores how teachers and families can help younger people to develop the capacity for resilience.
- Sinking & swimming - understanding Britain's unmet needs - is a major report from the Young Foundation which aims to identify some of the important social and personal needs that are currently not being met in Britain. It suggests that the capacity for resilience is one of the things we should be promoting more in society and education.
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 In our busy and pressurised modern lives it is important to find time to relax and find some peace. The Mental Health Foundation have produced a series of free podcasts that can help you to de-stress, relax and even sleep better. The complete set can be found here, but below are links to those closely related to the idea of relaxation:
- Stress and the mind - a series of exercises which outline how to use positive emotions and imagery to ease pressure.
- Stress and relaxation - stress management techniques which can help relieve pressure from daily life.
- Well-being and sleep - a podcast to listen to in bed, which can help you relax and get ready to go to sleep.
- Well-being and relaxation - a short and easy form of meditation which can be effective in relaxing and reducing stress. |
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 In our daily lives we receive a wide range of 'mental inputs' - messages that enter our brains from the outside world. They could include messages from a wide range of sources - for example, the opinions of our friends, advertisements, images from TV news and things we've read in magazines or newspapers. Some of these messages will be trying to influence us in some way - to do or think certain things - from advertisements telling us to buy particular products to politicians telling us to support particular policies. Some of these messages can be quite sophisticated and subtle in the way they try to influence us.
In this situation, it can be difficult to interpret these 'mental inputs' and identify what agenda (if any) they have, as well as to work out which messages to believe and which to ignore. This process of managing our mental inputs is important, as if we aren't able to do it, we risk being influenced into doing and thinking things that aren't in line with what we really want, and this can cause us anxiety or stop us living the lives we really want.
For example, adverts and magazine articles might influence you to want the latest gadget, and you might feel the need to work stressful, long hours so you can earn enough money to buy it, when actually, upon reflection, you feel you don't really need the gadget that much and would rather have more time with your family than spend all the extra hours at work.
We therefore need to use a couple of 'mental tools' to help us to manage our mental inputs better - and therefore protect our 'mental freedom':
- Critical thinking - get into the habit of questioning all the messages you receive from external sources - whatever they may be, and in each case, evaluate whether the sources are reliable, what the purpose of the message is and whether it is something to be digested or ignored.
- Protect your personal identity - by developing a strong sense of who you are and what matters to you, trusting it and resisting suggestions from external sources that you should change yourself or your thinking. These influences should not necessarily prevent you from developing yourself or changing your thinking on particular matters, but before you do so you should think the issue through for yourself, consult reliable sources and conclude whether it would be of genuine benefit to you.
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 Perspective is the ability to stand back and see a situation in a wider context. It is a thinking skill that can be extremely useful when we are immersed in any form of complexity – from thinking about our existence as a human being, to living our day-to-day lives, through to battling with a moral question.
At Life², we believe that, by developing perspective, people can gain better lives in the modern world. This is why we have provided some of the content in the ‘Good stuff’ section – particularly the information and overviews contained within the ‘Understanding the world’ and ‘Understanding concepts and ideas’ categories – to help people develop perspective.
This article explores what perspective is, how to develop it and how it can make our lives better. |
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