Suicide Prevention Awareness: Plan for Resilience
Being a resilient person means having the ability to bounce back after a difficult situation. The way we deal with stress or problems reflects how resilient we are in facing these challenges. Have you ever faced setbacks while working? Are personal problems making their way into your work activity? Juggling all the different stressors in our lives can greatly affect our mental health, which is why a resilience plan is a crucial tool in how we deal with them.
In the workplace setting, having higher resilience leads to lower stress and better mental health. This is an important tool that workers in stressful environments, like construction and trades, have to learn. But first, what should we know and learn about resilience? Are there specific actions or tools that help make us more resilient? Let’s explore further.
What Is Resilience?
Resilience can be your mental and emotional armor. It’s the ability to bounce back and stay strong in the face of challenges, setbacks, and stress. Think of it as your superpower for handling tough situations. Resilience means being flexible and adaptable. When your job changes or unexpected issues arise, you can adjust your approach without losing your cool. It’s like being a chameleon – you can blend in with different situations.
This does not mean minimizing or neglecting our problems. On the contrary, resilience is about exploring options on how we face stress or difficulties. We need to have a resilience plan to muster enough courage and find a way out of the problem. This is how we become resilient people.
Resilience and the Way We React to Stress
Work-related stress can build up pressure. This is why resilience is important when it comes to solving a problem. Instead of getting stuck when things go wrong, you can use your resilience to find solutions and keep moving forward. It’s like having a GPS for navigating challenges. Resilience means not being afraid to fail. It’s about seeing failures as opportunities to learn and grow. It’s like a scientist conducting experiments – even when they don’t get the results they hoped for, they learn something valuable.
We need to understand that workplace stress, personal problems, and other issues we face in our lives are part of our human experience. Instead of viewing them negatively, we have to take them as a challenge on how to overcome them. A resilience plan is what we need so that we’re able to switch to a better action or decision the next time we face difficulties.
Recognizing Stressors and Triggers
One crucial way of building resilience is understanding what makes us feel stressed or depressed. These stressors and triggers need to be checked as they can cloud our judgment and affect our emotions. It is best to recognize them and identify how we react to these events, problems, or even people.
Our reactions become automatic, driven by our desire to minimize the stress we’re experiencing. These responses have to be identified. We need to manage our emotions so that we don’t respond to whatever threat or challenges we face in a non-productive manner.
4 A’s Of Stress Coping Mechanism
The 4 A’s of coping mechanisms—Accept, Avoid, Alter, and Adapt—are strategies people use to deal with stress, challenges, and difficult situations. Each “A” represents a different approach to coping, and individuals may employ these strategies based on the specific circumstances they face. Let’s delve into each of them:
- Accept – This coping strategy involves acknowledging and accepting the reality of a situation without trying to change it. It’s about coming to terms with things you cannot control or change. Example: You accept that you missed a deadline due to circumstances beyond your control, and you focus on what you can do to prevent it from happening in the future.
- Avoid – Avoidance coping involves deliberately avoiding or distancing yourself from stressors or difficult situations. While avoidance can provide temporary relief, it’s not always a healthy long-term solution. Example: You identify the factors contributing to your work-related stress and implement techniques to better organize your tasks and reduce pressure.
- Alter – Altering coping strategies involves taking action to change the situation or reduce its impact. This approach is proactive and aims to address the root causes of stress or challenges. Example: You identify the factors contributing to your work-related stress and implement techniques to better organize your tasks and reduce pressure.
- Adapt – Adaptation coping involves adjusting your mindset and emotional response to better align with the situation. It’s about being flexible and finding new ways to view or approach the challenge. Example: You face a major change at work, like a reorganization. Instead of resisting it, you choose to see it as an opportunity for growth and skill development.
These coping mechanisms are a better option than engaging in harmful behaviors. Some people may turn to excessive alcohol consumption or other destructive habits to escape their problems. That’s why it’s important to have a resilience plan. With a resilience plan, you address the difficult situation and identify where your stress is coming from. It helps us redirect our thoughts and emotions toward a more positive outcome.
Whenever we face something unfamiliar or challenging, we tend to react negatively. These situations are sometimes inevitable, especially in the workplace. You may be facing a challenging work situation, fears of unemployment, or a conflict with a coworker. Having a resilience plan helps us identify these triggers and assists us in making better decisions.
The stress we experience at work and personal conflicts do not mean that suicide is the answer. The best answer is resilience – it’s about navigating your way out of the situation. Explore positive coping mechanisms and understand whether your triggers are making you react to a situation. Who knows? You could find a positive outcome by referring to a resilience plan as a mental health resource.