Introduction

Individual responses to a problem or a stressor vary substantially. Some people are born with a temperament that predisposes them to have a high or low stress tolerance. Your cognitive response to a circumstance has an impact on how stressful a scenario is for you. This reaction is defined by your assessment of the event’s nature, significance, and repercussions, as well as your capacity to effectively handle or cope with it. Stress management can be learned.

Your temperament, as well as your assessment of the circumstance and your coping capacities, affect your emotional responses to a scenario.

Stress resistance

When the body detects a threat (or stressor), it goes into high alert mode, and it swiftly recovers after the threat has passed. That is, at least, how it is meant to function. Health concerns, employment, money, family issues, racism or gender inequity, and everyday annoyances are all examples of stressors. Your body may be in a permanent state of high alert as a result of relentless or too many stimuli, leading to poor focus, unpleasant moods, exhaustion, and mental and physical health issues. When stress becomes chronic, the body becomes unable to operate normally. Chronic stress has been related to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and anxiety disorders.

Individual differences exist in addition to sex and gender disparities. Some people have a higher level of resiliency than others. They are less or more affected by stress, and they may even perform better under pressure. “There’s an old adage that goes, ‘It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce.’ There’s good news for those of us who don’t bounce back as quickly.   After hardships, some resilient people may gain a stronger appreciation for their lives, families, friends, and other concerns.

Stress Resistant Personality

People with high levels of stress but low levels of disease are labeled as having a stress-resistant personality, according to Kobasa’s research. Work, family, hobbies, and social life are all important to stress-resistant people.

Some individuals seem to be stress resistant and stress tough. They appear to be balanced, happy, creative, resourceful, and strong, even when faced with multiple psychosocial stressors and difficult situations.

The stress-resistant and stress-tough person is psychologically strong, has a positive attitude and purpose, keeps life in perspective, has a good sense of personal control and lives well. In short, the stress resistance characteristics seem to serve as a buffer against stress and help to rebound quickly from difficulties!

The key characteristics of stress resistance and toughness are

• CONTROL The stress-resistant individual believes they exert and that they have self-control. They see themselves as the Captain of the ship. They view themselves as having personal control, and as being empowered to overcome problems.
• ATTITUDE The stress-resistant individual has a hopeful attitude and emphasizes the positive. He/she is optimistic and focuses on assets and finding solutions.
• COMMITMENT The stress-resistant individual knows what is critical and important in their life. They are committed to their family, work and themselves. They can tackle issues, overcome barriers, and get through a crisis.
• PERSPECTIVE The stress-resistant individual can keep his/her life balanced with an accurate and positive perspective. They tend to respond with confidence, dignity, and patience to daily hassles and problems.

How to Manage Stress

Mental well-being necessitates a focus on stress management and resilience building. Here are some suggestions for both men and women:

Recognize the indications of stress and how to deal with them. Difficulty focusing, headaches, cold hands, tight muscles, an anxious stomach, clenched teeth, feeling on edge, fidgety, angry, or withdrawn are all signs that your body is stressed. Understanding how your body communicates can assist you in dealing with difficult situations. Learn to recognize and name these emotions, whether to oneself or a friend. Then take steps to mitigate their consequences. Deep breathing, stretching, going for a walk, writing down your thoughts, and spending quiet time to focus, for example, may all help you relax and de-stress.

Set aside some time for yourself. Make it a habit to look for oneself daily. It’s not self-indulgent or selfish, but it may necessitate saying “no” to requests or putting yourself over your duties. To help you build resilience to stressful situations, start with minor modifications in your daily routine. Schedule time for exercising, eating nutritious meals, relaxing hobbies, and sleeping. When you’re worried, incorporating a routine of exercise, which for some may include yoga or meditation, may be beneficial. Also, take time to notice the “good minutes” in each day or to do something you enjoy, such as reading a book or listening to music, which can help you focus on the positive rather than the negative.

Experiment with fresh routines. Extra discipline can create a daily framework that helps you to adjust to your body’s signs, from arranging baths and bedtimes to cutting off time to planning and prioritizing chores. Then you’ll be able to take actions to perhaps control stress sooner than before.

Keep in touch and make new friends. Maintain contact with family, friends, and other groups in your life – technology has made this simpler than ever before. It can be soothing and relaxing to have someone to chat with. For certain persons, using video features can improve their connection in telecommunications or online conversations.

When you have a problem, seek assistance. Many people face the same stressors daily, such as caring, relationships, health, employment, and money. Look for advice and information from friends and family, as well as other reliable persons and resources.

Conclusion

Resiliency is a personality trait made up of three traits: control, commitment, and challenge, all of which are thought to help people cope with stress. Individuals with a high level of hardiness believe and act as if life events are under their control (control), engage meaningfully in living activities and appraise these activities as purposeful and worthy of investment.  According to existential personality theory, the combination of these traits gives people the bravery and drive to cope adaptively with life stress, reducing the negative impacts on their health.

Studies on emotional intelligence and burnout include extensive research on leaders who are flourishing despite working in high-stress roles. Many of them have developed a quality referred to as stress resilience, or the ability to return to baseline after a stressful event and adapt in the face of adversity. While it comes easier to some people than others, it is something anyone can cultivate.

Here are the top five characteristics and behaviors stress-resilient leaders practice, along with tips for how to learn and develop each one.

1) They have a positive, optimistic outlook.

Maintaining, or at least returning to, a positive outlook in the face of adversity is the foundation of stress resilience. When people with an optimistic outlook experience setbacks and challenges, they believe it’s a temporary state and that things will eventually get better. They’re also less likely to blame themselves for their adversities, which prevents negative feelings that exacerbate stress, like shame and guilt.

Those with a more pessimistic outlook, by contrast, are more likely to get caught in the trap of blaming themselves or others and imagining the worst-case scenario.

What you can do:

In your situation, the idea is not to be overly positive, but rather to maintain a level of emotional equilibrium when reacting to high-stress events at work. Shifting from a pessimistic-leaning to an optimistic-leaning mindset can help you recover from stress at a faster pace and see the situation through a clearer lens.

If you’re feeling short on optimism, there are a few practices that can help:

• Train yourself to think constructively about adverse events. There’s usually a silver lining in every situation, so look for that and focus on it, rather than on its negative aspects. Reflect on the last challenge you faced: Maybe you learned something about yourself, gained a new skill, or can now find something about the experience for which you’re grateful.
• Surround yourself with people who choose to see “a glass half full.” We tend to pick up the moods and attitudes of those around us. Align yourself with people at work who approach challenges with a positive attitude. Try to absorb and learn from their example. You may even seek out their advice when you’re feeling low. (How do they get through a tough day?)
• Start each day with a positive experience. First impressions can set the tone for the entire day, so make a habit of giving yourself a morning dose of positivity. Examples from my study participants include enjoying a fun Peloton ride, reading uplifting content, listening to a mood-boosting song or a podcast, or watching funny reels.
• Actively plan for a more positive future. Think about what you want your workday to look like. Write it down and then try to take at least one step to make that vision come true. People who are proactive about planning for a brighter future are more likely to make that future a reality, and having something to look forward to increases optimism.

2) They take a problem-solving approach to stress.

Stress-resilient people view stressors as surmountable challenges and solvable problems. They’re also more likely to have what’s known as a stress-is-enhancing mindset, or the belief that facing and overcoming challenging experiences provides the best growth opportunities. They may not necessarily look forward to stressful events, but they don’t regard them as a threat, and they make the most of them when they arrive.

What you can do:

When faced with a stressful event on the job, your instinct (fight, flight, freeze mode) may push you towards anger, frustration, avoidance, or denial. If you have perfectionist tendencies and are facing a new challenge, you may even react by trying to overwork.

The key to developing a problem-solving approach to stress involves regulating your instinctual emotions (not just your thoughts). Unregulated emotions often get in the way of problem-solving, so any practice that helps restore a state of calm after a stressful event — such as mindfulness meditation, exercise, journaling, being in nature, or getting support from a loved one — will bring you closer to a place of emotional regulation.

If you’re caught up in strong emotion and need to quickly calm down, deep, diaphragmatic breathing can help. It triggers your parasympathetic nervous system (also known as the rest-and-digest system), which deactivates your stress response and promotes relaxation. The sooner you can calm yourself, the sooner you can think logically about how to solve the problem as opposed to pouring your energy into managing your emotions.

3) They focus on what they can control.

Dwelling on the things you cannot change creates a sense of helplessness and heightens stress. Stress-resilient people overcome this by teaching themselves to hone in on the things they can change and improve — and they act on them. When they encounter situations that are truly beyond their control and that inspire a strong emotional response (e.g. a layoff, an unwanted change with no room for negotiation, or the loss of key stakeholders), they are able to quickly regulate those feelings and shift to problem-solving.

What you can do:

This ability is something that can be developed with intention and practice. In addition to the emotional regulation skills mentioned in the previous point, look for what you can control in stressful moments. Then pause and give it your full attention, which will lead you towards a thoughtful response rather than an immediate reaction.

4) They are adaptable and flexible.

Stress-resilient people have learned how to embrace change rather than brace for change. Instead of trying to resist, put off, or avoid potentially stressful changes, they accept that change is inevitable and approach it with curiosity and adaptability.

What you can do:

You can train yourself to be more adaptable and flexible by consciously practicing the positive emotions stress-resilient people tend to feel. According to Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build Theory, negative emotions (such as anger, anxiety, and depression) immediately narrow our thoughts and behaviors because they focus our attention on neutralizing or avoiding whatever has caused our negative emotion — as opposed to expansive, flexible thinking that inspires many possible actions. In other words, we become singularly focused on doing whatever it takes to end the negative emotional state.

Positive emotions, on the other hand, such as joy, interest, contentment, and love, broaden our thoughts and behaviors, allowing access to a wider array of observations and insights, as well as the ability to respond in a more expansive and flexible manner. Feeling curious and interested, for example, “creates the urge to explore, take in new information and experiences, and expand the self in the process,” Fredrickson notes. Over time, a broadened mindset, fueled by positive emotions, allows us to build new physical, psychological, social, and intellectual capabilities — and enjoy all their benefits such as greater creativity, knowledge, social connection, and resilience.

When you’re faced with a big change, instead of defaulting to narrow, self-limiting thinking that focuses on what you’ll lose or assuming your new situation will be worse than your previous one, look for the positives in the situation. What new opportunities will this change present? How can this change benefit you and others?

Looking for opportunities rather than losses cultivates positive emotions, and reflects the open-minded attitude of stress-resilient people. Their thinking looks more like: “I’m open to multiple possibilities,” “Here’s a chance to learn something new,” or “I’m excited to see where this will lead.”

5) They have strong relationships and social connections.

Researchers speculate that people who are lonely and socially isolated remain in chronic fight-or-flight mode, where they have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and higher levels of systemic inflammation. Over time, being in a chronic state of stress undermines health and increases our vulnerability to burnout.

Contrastingly, people who have high levels of social support are more resilient to stress and rely on their relationships to help them manage and recover from stress. Those who have stronger social connections also gain a calming effect from the oxytocin released during social interactions and feel a greater sense of belonging, both of which protect against stress. These people tend to be comfortable asking for support when their stress becomes unmanageable or they need help solving a problem and are more likely to have a network composed of problem solvers.

What you can do:

No matter how stressful your work situation has become, a support system will only benefit you. An extensive network isn’t necessary. Even if you have one person you can turn to when stress hits, that’s enough to help you return to a regulated state. Studies have also shown that practicing empathy, when we try to understand the perspectives of others, and offering compassion when we extend a helping hand to others, can counteract the physiological effects of stress.

To strengthen the quality of your relationships and develop greater stress resilience, listen to others with your full attention, provide positive feedback, express appreciation to others, or participate in social groups such as professional organizations, recreational groups, or clubs.

The next time a stressful situation hits you at work, you may just find you have more tools — and people — to help you manage your feelings and reactions to it. Cultivating stress resilience doesn’t mean you won’t experience stress at work. It does mean you will have the ability to recover from stressful experiences and remain effective, even when your job becomes demanding. Taking time to practice the five competencies above will help you regulate your negative feelings, gain agency over the things you can control, and approach stressful situations with greater intentionality and clarity.