5 Tips To build Your Resilience In The New Year

There are times in life when you just feel good, you’re cheerful, energetic and optimistic. How do you hang on to that feeling?

Here are some small steps that will help you fight the winter blues. If you make these a part of your routine, you can increase your chances of feeling good more often.

5 Ways To Build Your Resilience

Sleep
One thing most of us do over the holidays, on vacation and even on the weekends is sleep a bit more. This isn’t indulgent; it’s an investment in both your mental and physical health.

Till Roenneberg suggests, in this article from Smithsonian Magazine,that a lack of sleep makes you less efficient at work, which in turn requires that you spend more hours working.

This vicious cycle plays havoc with your system and can trigger weight gain. He says “Sleep has not been put out there by evolution as a time when we’re lazy, it’s a time when we’re preparing to be extremely active.”

So, don’t save it for the weekend. Give up a bit of TV, or whatever you’re doing that prevents you from crawling between the sheets, and get an extra hour of sleep every night.

Celebrate The Small Wins
Research tells us that one way to alleviate depression is simply listing five good things that happened, at the end of every day.

Actively focusing on the positive things, rather than chastising yourself for what went wrong or wasn’t finished, can change the way you feel about yourself.

You wouldn’t recite a litany of failures to a child as they prepared to go to bed, so why talk to yourself like that?

Finish your day with a quick review of the things you feel proud of, the small things that went well, the little moments that you were pleased with. It will reinforce your sense of optimism and your belief in yourself.

Make Yourself Big
When you’re preparing for a situation that makes you nervous, stressed or could shake your confidence, try this technique to get your animal instincts working for you.

Amy Cuddy, a Social Psychologist has researched how “Power Posing” can increase your testosterone levels – which gives you more confidence, and lower your cortisol levels – which diminishes your fear.

Stand like Superman for two minutes, legs planted wide and arms outstretched, reaching for the sky, and make yourself as big as possible. Those two minutes can change your body chemistry and may have an impact on your success.

Watch Amy on Ted Talks for the details of their research and how you can use your body language to give you courage to face the unknown.

Having more confidence and less fear is bound to help you feel resilient in the new year.

Just Listen
We talk, give advice, interrupt, talk over, give more advice, finish each other’s sentences and fill in any quiet spot. We don’t spend a lot of time listening.

If you listen, without interrupting, you will be amazed at the intelligence, empathy and understanding people project on to you… just by listening.

Most people don’t expect you to have the answers or fix the situation when they start a conversation, they want to talk. By giving someone your full attention, looking at them, nodding encouragement, asking questions, you’ve given them a gift they rarely receive.

By listening you allow people to solve their own problems, affirm their beliefs or explore possibilities. You can hang on to your good cheer by realizing they don’t need your advice, they just want your attention.

Appreciate what you’ve got
Sometimes we forget to count our blessings.

For most of us, being able to walk, hear and see are things we take for granted. When we remember to appreciate these basic body functions, it becomes less important that we’ve gained a few pounds or got a bad haircut.

Being thankful that we have a job, a home or a family can help keep us grounded.

American’s have a wonderful holiday called Thanksgiving where they focus on the things they are grateful for. Taking time to appreciate what you have encourages your spirit and helps fortify you for the challenges ahead.

And with that, I’m wishing all of you a new year filled with happiness.