What defines resilient people? Let’s look at a phrase from Herman Hesse:
"Soft is stronger than hard; / water is stronger than rock, / love is stronger than violence."Why would Herman Hesse think that soft turns out to be stronger or more resistant than stiff or rigid? If we carefully analyze this phrase by the Swiss writer, we can conclude that he was referring to resilience.
Resilience is the ability we have to adapt and faceless favourable situations. A concept well known by psychology but little explored by the human being in general. Resilience is a tool that all living beings have at their disposal, although in different ways.
It is a key with which it is possible to face bad times and survive. It is a beautiful invention of nature, thanks to which it does not break despite stretching the rope of our emotions a lot.
However, it seems that people find it less difficult to resist or face bad times. Or perhaps the effort is the same, but the attitude that is taken is different.
What defines resilient people
Flower on asphalt representing resilient people
Resilience is part of a complex mechanism influenced by many other factors, such as our attitude when faced with a problem. And perhaps because of this, some people seem to deal with conflictive or unpleasant situations differently, more efficiently.
What defines resilient people ?
After various studies by current psychology, it has been concluded that these are the characteristics of resilient people:
They can detect the cause of problems
Resilient people carry out the necessary strategies to prevent the problem situation from happening again. This also implies self-analysis since sometimes the trigger for a conflict does not come from outside but from within.
Therefore these people would operate in the following way: “If I cannot change the situation, I can choose to change myself.”
They know how to handle their emotions
Resilient people are capable of managing their thoughts since any emotion starts from here. We think, then we feel. Resilient people control their thoughts to avoid being carried away by those who have a negative charge and, therefore, can generate negative emotions.
If our thoughts are negative, negative emotions are triggered. And on the contrary, if our thoughts are positive, our mood will be more positive. If we train our resilience, we will better control negative thoughts, and we will face adversity much better.
INTRODUCTION
Resilience is a new concept, spread in recent years, and very useful for those of us who work with children and young people. It opens up new possibilities, gives a new, more hopeful look to the old problems of our students.
“Since the concept of psychic trauma was born, the concatenation of ideas requires that after the clinical description and investigation of the causes, we dedicate our efforts to the prevention of trauma and its better repair. And for this, we need the concept of resilience “2.
Today the postmodern world presents us with contradictory discourses. On the one hand, it tells us about the validity of Human Rights, and a technological culture shows us the possibility of eradicating suffering; with a better social organization and good chemicals capable of solving all ills without much effort. Faced with this discourse, which is that of the mass media, consumerism, the culture of beauty and youth, there is another, more fundamental but less visible, and they do not show it; we must see it.
What defines resilient people ?
It is the latter that we are going to dedicate ourselves to in this work. It is the one that tells us that life is never without problems; there are always stages of adversity; it speaks of large impoverished and excluded sectors, the increase in drug dependence and family deterioration.
At this point is inserted, for us, the need to fully use the concept of resilience in social, educational, and health actions that include individual subjects of all ages, families, and communities assisted by programs that promote and reinforce resilient characteristics.
Developing countries, especially those in Latin America, are suffering a process of impoverishment that generates frustration and social resentment. These situations produce stress even for those who do not suffer it directly.
However, human beings can become resilient and face adverse events. Hence, the view of resilience, its theoretical conception and its application in programs and projects grew notably. The spectrum of disciplines interested in resilience has increased to the point of making it a transdisciplinary activity par excellence, which brings together knowledge from different areas: psychology, anthropology, sociology, health sector, economics, social work, law, the science of the education.
The concept of resilience was born and began to develop in the northern hemisphere, Rutter, in England, Werner, in the United States, then it spread to all of Europe, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, later it reached Latin America, where it was They have created significant research and project development, groups.
From the theoretical point of view, we could speak of three currents: the North American, behaviourist, pragmatic and focused on the individual; the European, with a psychoanalytic approach; and the Latin American community, focused on the social as a logical response to the problems of the context.
In Latin America, it has been possible to identify numerously applied and carefully evaluated projects and groups of thinkers who have come to elaborate a Latin American theory of resilience with appropriate approaches to this social reality. Another significant fact is that numerous institutions, such as universities, ministries, governments and non-governmental organizations, have incorporated resilience principles, either implicitly or explicitly. Today, many courses and master’s degrees for health and education personnel include the theme of resilience among their contents—particularly the collective and community approach that has been a Latin American contribution.
