Emotional Resilience for better ROI
I started looking this up in June 2023, as I was putting pieces together from research, and talking to people in NGO and previously in the military.
in this article:
1- What is emotional resilience + other names it has + how it works
2- Emotional resilience and the military (some countries)
3- How it links to your daily lives and how it can GET YOU MORE OF WHAT YOU WANT
This is by no means exhaustive, and if you’re curious, I invite you to follow your curiosity where ever it leads you ;)
1- What is emotional resilience + other names it has + how it works
Emotional resilience is your ability to respond to stressful or unexpected situations and crises.
stressful situations includes: talking to your boss or colleagues, receiving a text or email saying :” we need to talk” (that one use to spike my heart rate all the time!), feeling you don’t have enough time in the day to do all that needs to be done, …
unexpected situations includes: breakups, loss of job, death of pet, relocation, being ghosted, death of a loved one, …
crises includes: economic downturn, natural disaster — fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunami … , wars, other violences, …
Other names:
mental resilience, psychological resilience, resilience
How it works
THIS IS BIOLOGY 😃 — Here’s the thing your brain has 3 levels
Reptilian — regulatory function : hormones — your body regulates
Limbic — emotional part, from us being mammals — you feel
Neo Cortex — controls the limbic brain — you think
Your brain does not make the difference between something real or something you made up in your thoughts.
You receive a promotion -> yeah! you’re worthy -> you feel great -> happy hormones are created
you some tells you they want to break up -> you feel hurt -> sad hormones are released
you loose you job -> you’re thinking: how am I going to pay for X, what will I tell to …? -> you feel stressed -> high level of cortisol, stress hormone, is released in your body, your heart rate increases, and shortness of breath may apear.
How about this scenario:
you are thinking about all the bad thing that can happen on your next flight -> you feel scared + stressed -> stress hormones are released in your system !!! yet you are only thinking about that flight and you’re not even on it!
you can also think positive thoughts — or practice gratitude & appreciation daily.
2- Emotional resilience and the military (some countries)
Emotional resilience is not something your parents consciously teach you (if you’re most people) and it’s not taught in most schools, some countries / private schools have started including it in their educational system.
In todays world, on an economical perspective, if they are no tangible economic results, it’s not given a lot of attention.
For the military, there came a tangible outcome, from research on post World War I, then WW2, then the Vietnam war, countries saw their soldiers coming back home being disconnected from the lives they were walking back in. Symptoms as bad dreams / flashbacks, anxiety, drinking for numbing, hostility, violence, fatigue, PTSD, depression, to suicides.
Countries where loosing people who’d fight for them after they’d come back. I’ve heard from previous military people, it’s one thing to loose someone in combat, it’s another to loose them at home when they are back in their civil lives.
Some military systems wanted to change that, they wanted to lower the numbers of suicides, and they chose to incorporate mental resilience training in the military training for all new recruits.
here’s some countries and dates when they’ve included the training:
Australia 2006
United State of America 2009
New Zealand 2018? unsure of the date
Nato research -> https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA582790.pdf
United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, Latvia 2011
OBJECTIVES OF MENTAL RESILIENCE TRAINING
The objectives of the training programs include: increase awareness of and be able to identify symptoms of stress in self and others; learn and apply skills to cope with stress; optimize mental fitness and resilience; decrease stigma toward and increase acceptance of mental health problems; increase mental health help-seeking behaviour; and, maintain operational effectiveness and performance. The mental health training for student pilots and air traffic controllers in Belgium, ‘Techniques to Optimize Potential’ (TOP: ‘Techniques pour l’Optimisation du Potentiel’), has as objectives: increased recovery after operations; improved sleep quality; improved vigilance and attention; improved decision making, self-confidence, group communication and cohesion; and enhanced learning.
from the NATO research -> https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA582790.pdf
3- How it links to your daily lives and how it can GET YOU MORE OF WHAT YOU WANT
improved decision making, self-confidence, group communication and cohesion; and enhanced learning.
If you’re a CEO would you want the above for you team?
Would you want your team to make the best possible for the company to have the best ROI for your shareholders? clients? employees?
The current situation:
most people working in companies are stretched in their work, fatigued, not spending a lot of time with their family, thus feeling they are missing out / stressed / not good enough
-> which activates hormones including stress hormones in their bodies.
-> therefore they are not making the best decisions …
If your team is not communicating it’s best, and an information is not being passed what is that costing you?
Across different departments? companies have resources, experts, yet communication can be missed because one doesn’t feel like it, ego, pride, being scared, other …
improved decision making, self-confidence, group communication and cohesion; and enhanced learning.
this is 100% valid in your personal life too
How would you show up if you’d be feel more self-confident?
How would your romantic relationship, family relationship, friendships be with better communication?
How would you advance in you career if you’d enhanced you’re learning capacity?
the catch? if there’s one, it’s that it’s a long term plan + people need to be willing to make the change.
You can’t change someone who doesn’t want to.
The military makes it a must as they lost good people, and they’ve seen improvements in performance too.
Companies could make it a must to increase to quality of the results / their ROI.
Individual could use it to feel freer, safer, more stable in their daily lives.
What will you choose? …
Thank you for reading, if you’ve learned something, like, comment, share it with others. I appreciate your support.
Tara 😃
About Tara
Master Method Coach, podcast host of “Rising tide with Tara Barot”, public speaker. Tara guides her clients to define what they truly want, remove the blocks in their way to take actions with ease towards their goal.
She’s a mental health advocate. In summer 2022, she decided to heal 2.5 years of constant stress, while living in Hong Kong during Covid.
For more information head to tarabarot.com
