Wellbeing Boost: Measure your Resilience

As we move into the next set of Covid-related challenges we show you how to measure your resilience.

The regular barrage of new challenges and changes to work and home life that we have all faced over recent months has at times seemed relentless. It is sometimes hard to feel we have space to catch our breath before the next crisis or threat emerges.

Consequently, this period in our lives has seen exceptional levels of challenge to our resilience and wellbeing, with very few escaping its impact.

In a previous blog we have talked about the impact on our mental health, how to recognise when we are struggling and what we can do about it. But, perhaps surprisingly, some people will have seen their resilience grow through the experience of challenge.

So it will be useful to know how your resilience is holding up. This way you can consider what actions you need to take to build or maintain your resilience and wellbeing going forwards.

What is resilience?

Our resilience is not a fixed ability that we are born with. Rather it is a blend of personal characteristics and capabilities that can grow and develop over time.

Through the experience of challenge we learn that we can generally cope with what life throws at us. When bad things happen, we come to realise that time doesn’t stand still, and we don’t fall apart. We may not notice it, but we often emerge the other side of the experience feeling stronger, having developed new skills to cope and the strength to bounce back.

The skills and strategies that we develop help build our capacity for resilience. They grow our self-belief and confidence that we can manage over the longer term. They equip us with a resilience toolkit to help us survive, recover and thrive in new or challenging situations as they arise.

Measure your resilience

Researchers in Australia have created a brand new resilience measure that can help us evaluate how resilient we are. The measure looks at both our ability to utilise resilience skills and strategies in the moment (state resilience) as well as our resilience capacity (trait resilience) over the longer term. Have a go now by answering these questions:

For each question rate yourself according to whether you: Disagree (1), Somewhat agree (2), Agree (3), Strongly agree (4). On items marked with an R, you will need to reverse the scoring: Disagree (4), Somewhat agree (3), Agree (2), Strongly agree (1).

State resilience: Please respond to the following items in terms of how you feel right now.

1. At the moment, I can cope with any difficulties I might face in my life

2. Currently, I believe I could recover from most life stressors

3. At the moment, I believe I am very resilient

4. Recently, I have felt like I would not be able to cope with any hardships that come my way (R)

5. Right now, I feel emotionally strong

6. At the moment, I feel that life’s ups and downs are too much to deal with (R)

Trait resilience: Please respond to the following items in terms of how you feel in general.

1. In general, I believe I am a resilient person

2. Generally, when others may give up, I stand strong and keep fighting

3. I don’t believe I have the emotional strength to cope with life stress (R)

4. In general, I feel things are too hard and I can’t manage (R)

5. In general, I do not feel I am an emotionally strong person (R)

6. I’ve always managed to stay strong when I have faced hardships in my life

7. I generally bounce back following stressful situations

Now add up your scores. The top score is 52. The higher your score, the more resilient you are. Remember your scores may vary over time and as you face different challenges.

Thinking back over your experience of the last 6 months, you may notice that you are better at managing in some situations than you were previously. Or you may feel your overall capacity for resilience has suffered as a result of the persistent challenges that you have been facing.

Whatever your score, how you equip yourself in the coming months to build resilience skills and grow resilience capacity will be key to how you cope. Please check out some of our other blogs for some essential tips and strategies to build resilience and boost wellbeing.

Or contact us to arrange a group resilience training workshop or 1-1 resilience coaching.

If you found this helpful and would like to read more bitesize tips, check out some of the other blogs in this series. You might also like to join our Facebook group UR Resilient, where members are busy sharing creative and inspiring ideas for staying positive during this challenging time.