EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE
Suzanne Kobasa, a psychologist, has identified a style of psychological coping she terms
“hardiness”, which appears to modify the relationship between stress and illness. Resilience,
defined as strength in the midst of change and stressful events, refers to the power of
springing back or recovering readily from adversity.
The following identifies the attitudes and skills necessary to be effective in the increasingly
changing and challenging process of work.
What is Emotional Resilience?
Emotional resilience is the capability to “spring back” after a challenging time or a set back. Stressed people may
experience negative emotions including anger, anxiety, resentment and depression. They may remain trapped
long after the stressful events have passed. Emotionally resilient people, on the other hand, are able to regroup
quickly into a positive emotional state.
Why Resiliency Matters
Positive emotions are intimately tied with immune function efficiency and physical health. Learning to be more
emotionally resilient has a positive impact on both emotional and physical health.
Specific Attitudes and Skills Practiced by Resilient People
Emotionally resilient people have attitudes about themselves and their role in the world that motivates and
empowers them to cope more efficiently and effectively than people who are not resilient. These attitudes and
skills are:
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Realistic and attainable expectations and goals
Good judgment and problem solving skills
Persistence and determination
Responsible and thoughtful, vs. impulsive
Effective communication and good people skills
Learn from past mistakes so as not to repeat them in the future
Empathetic towards others, vs. self-absorbed
Good social conscience and concern for others
Positive self esteem
Internal locus of control ( believe they have the potential for control and influence over their lives) vs.
feeling reactive to outside control;
Optimistic vs. pessimistic
Belief that it is possible to consciously influence and change negative moods to positive moods
Understand how to question our belief systems, and to be strength-based rather than fear-based
Physical Health Benefits
Positive emotions are associated with healthy immune system functioning. Negative emotions are associated
with weaker immune functioning and the production of the stress hormone. For example, depressed women with
breast cancer have fewer immune system cells and weaker overall immune functioning when compared to nondepressed breast cancer suffers. The immune system’s job is to hunt down and kill cancer cells, so depressed
women with weaker immune systems means they are less likely to resist cancer.
Emotional Intelligence
Resilience is a learnable skill, and it requires work towards greater self-knowledge. Emotional intelligence is “your
ability to use your emotions intelligently and appropriately in different situations, combined with your ability to use
emotions to make yourself more intelligent overall. Emotionally intelligent people are able to; accurately
recognize and comprehend emotion (both in others and in themselves), appropriately express and control their
own emotions, help facilitate emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth. Emotionally intelligent people
intentionally use their thinking and behavior to guide their emotions rather than letting their emotions dictate their
thinking and behavior.
People who are emotionally intelligent tend to be highly emotionally resilient. The seven primary emotional
intelligence and resiliency skills are:
1. Self Awareness: the ability to recognize feelings while they are happening
2. Emotional Management: controlling feelings so that they remain appropriate to a given situation
(maintaining perspective, calming skills, functioning from our strengths vs. our fears, identifying the
difference between negative core beliefs and truth)
3. Self-Motivation: keeping actions goal-directed, even when distracted by emotion; ability to delay
gratification and avoid impulsive acting out
4. Problem Solving
5. Conflict Resolution
6. Empathy: ability to notice and correctly interpret needs and wants of others
7. Relationship Management: ability to anticipate, understand and appropriately respond to the
emotions of others
Underlying Attitudes and Skills
Emotional resilience is a matter of attitude and belief. How people think about themselves, their relationships with
others, and the world around them forms the foundation for emotion management. Negative, defeatist attitudes
towards self and others undercut resilience. Positive, empowering attitudes create the ideal foundation for
resilience. Emotionally resilient people display the following characteristics:
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Happiness: good self esteem, confidence in self, firm belief in own competence
Personal Control: belief that we have control over what happens to us; we are in charge of our own
destiny rather than being a victim of others or bad luck
 Primary Control: ability to actually change a situation
 Secondary Control: ability to change how we think about a situation
Optimism: hopeful, and a belief we may succeed when we try new things, seek new learning and
value in challenging times; ability to change learned helplessness
Practice mindfulness and have ability to “go with the flow”
Hardiness: view stress as a challenge, identify personal control, demonstrate commitment
Communication skills
Healthy relationships
Practice compassion and empathy
To learn more about emotional resilience and other valuable mental health and wellness practices, please
visit your EAS / Wellness Matters website at eas.psdschools.org or call EAS at 970-204-4718.