Why linking Mindfulness and Resilience to reduce stress makes sense

Many of us believe that stress is unavoidable and even necessary to become successful. But research suggests that too much stress is harmful and toxic for our health and our performance. Stress and anxiety in the workplace have become the norm with 80% of the workforce saying they feel stressed. And never more so than in the last 15 months.

We need some stress to get us going, but ongoing and chronic stress leads to heart disease, head aches and muscle pains, a weakened immune system, focus and memory impairment, anxiety, insomnia and ultimately burnout and disengagement with the world around us.

So how do you build resilience to stress and improve your overall well-being and performance?

Mindfulness is the moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging those as good or bad. Including mindfulness practices into the day, even for as little as 10 minutes, has shown to positively impact our physical and mental well-being.

Mindfulness is a key component of resilience. As we filter external facts through our internal lens of meaning-making, beliefs, thoughts and emotions, we create our reality which can lock us into limiting beliefs and powerlessness. Through the non-judgemental mindful awareness of us and our environment, we become conscious of the way we perceive and respond to situations.

Mindfulness activates the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for sound and logical decision making and decreases the activity of the amygdala, which triggers the fight, flight or freeze stress response. With the prefrontal cortex engaged, we are able to deconstruct and re-frame a given situation and respond from a place of freedom and choice. In other words, we can re-act resiliently.

When we combine mindfulness and resilience, we change our responses as we change our perception and meaning-making. It’s more than facing life’s adversities and bouncing back, it’s giving the opportunity to learn and try new things. It is empowering us to go on the adventure with, for and to ourselves.