Developing Resilience During Adversity

Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier is a registered psychologist and often speaks about resilience and burn out. With both a PHD and an MBA, she brings the insights from psychological research about health, performance and overcoming challenges to serve the wellbeing of health care professionals and other leaders.

Note from MH: The Canadian Dental Association interviewed me in March 2020 on resilience – both as it related to the work of dental professionals and the particular pandemic context. Always a pleasure to work with CDA!

 

How do you define resilience?

It’s our ability to bounce back after difficult or challenging situations. Indeed, resilience goes beyond this to gaining strength and wisdom from difficult situations, which ultimately make us even stronger than we were before.

Particularly in the work environment, one thing that affects resilience is how we respond to mistakes, as individuals, but also in our work context. Do we have a growth mindset? Do we believe that a mistake is an opportunity to learn? These approaches have been shown to be more aligned with a resilient mindset.

 

How do you recognize burn out in others or ourselves?

It’s a combination of exhaustion, having very low energy and cynicism. When we are cynical, we’re distancing ourselves. We feel helpless, so we don’t care anymore. Then there will usually be an impact on performance.

 

Why is resilience so important for health care professionals?

It’s important for all of us but health care professionals like dentists, provide an essential service that comes with high responsibilities and demands. If dentists aren’t able to bounce back after difficult situations, if their resources are depleted, it makes doing their important work more challenging. Health care professionals are committed to protecting the public’s health and safety, but to be able to do so, the health and safety of health care professionals must be protected.

 

There is a lot of uncertainty right now. How does uncertainty affect resilience?  

All kinds of reactions are to be expected and in a normal range. They won’t feel normal but they are to be expected in the abnormal environment we are in right now. Most people are resilient, which does not mean we feel nothing different in the current context. Many might feel more anxious and our mood will be impacted. We might have more challenges sleeping or concentrating because COVID-19 brings  stressors to a whole new level.

At times like this, often our brains will spin off with “what if” scenarios. And part of this is adaptive behaviour because we are trying to deal with several possible consequences. But it can go too far and end up feeding anxiety. Often, our “what if” scenarios are not entirely realistic. It can help to realize that we don’t know the whole picture. It can help to take a broader perspective and ensure we look for other, possibly neutral or even positive aspects of the current situation. Historically, humans have gone through very difficult times and challenges, and bounced back.

 

What are some concrete steps that we can take to build our resilience at a time like this?

In a state of uncertainty, we often seek out as much information as possible. But, for our health, we might consider limiting how much information we consume, the sources we are choosing, and how often.

I recommend that people create realistic limits. Maybe you read the news once in the morning and once in the afternoon, for a set amount of time each session, say half an hour. That gives your brain time to process the information, especially before you go to sleep.

The fundamentals of how we build resilience are always the same. We have to consider four main aspects of our lives:  sleep, exercise, nutrition, and relationships. We should try to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night to be able to function well. Protect the hour before going to bed as time to calm down.

Research shows that exercise improves how our brain functions. Some people feel that exercise is a luxury, but it’s actually necessary for resilience. If you’ve exercised, you will likely think better. Research suggests that there are 3 kinds of exercise that help: cardio, strength training and meditative-type activity. During COVID-19, while we are all home far more often, it might even be an opportunity to bring exercise into our lives on a daily basis in a new way.

We know that nutrition is important for our physical health. There is also a lot of research that also shows the impact of nutrition on our mental health. The same diet that we would eat to protect ourselves from systemic diseases is also good for resilience. A Mediterranean diet with fish, leafy vegetables, and olive oil. This kind of diet decreases our risk for depression and can increase our resilience.

During this pandemic, there appears to be an increased in alcohol intake. It may be because it feels like regular life has been suspended for a short time, so people have relaxed their rules for themselves; it may also be as an attempt to cope with stress. But this situation might last for some time. Based on Canadian guidelines, women should not exceed a maximum of 10 drinks per week. For men, the maximum is 15.

Strong relationships are good for us. This is something that people are thinking a lot about right now, which is wonderful. The key here is to maintain these relationships as the current context extends over time.

I think a lot of us already know these fundamentals, just like dental patients know they should brush and floss. But there is a difference between knowing and doing. This disruption, this unique context we are living in, may be an opportunity to rearrange our lives and change our routines so that they serve us better.

 

Do you see any bright spots in the context of the COVID-19 crisis?

The fact that everyone is experiencing the same situation means that we have an opportunity to positively influence each other. It is a good time to centre on our core values and goals, ensure we make choices aligned with them and to take an active role in protecting our resilience. In the same way that one panic shopper can influence other shoppers, what you do for your resilience may inspire others around you to do the same. If we protect our health and resiliency, we can help those close to us be even stronger for the future.

 

To find the full article, click here to go to the CDA website.