Resiliency

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Welcome to another Taking a Moment, a time to remind ourselves that we're all in this together and then we need to take care of ourselves and each other. Today, I want to talk to you about resiliency.

I know there's a lot thrown around there about being resilient, and I'm going to let you in on a little secret of psychology. We don't actually know what resiliency is. In fact, resilience is probably a lot like art. You know it when you see it.

But I know what it's not. Resilience is not the same thing as success. Success just means that somehow you had a good outcome regardless of how you got there. Resilience is either maintaining a reasonable outcome or having a good outcome, despite adversity.

Resilience can't be seen in the absence of adversity. So when we talk about being resilient, when we talk about all these different tips and things like that in order to help you become resilient, we really are only talking about that in the context of adversity.

Keep in mind that as we're going through these experiences, as we're facing these adversities, that's when we can show how resilient we are. That's where we take the skills that we've learned, and that's how we come out stronger and more resilient, whatever that means. Stay strong.

Robert Althoff, MD and Aron Steward , PhD from CVPH Psychiatry offer tips and information about coping during this time of crisis.