Resilience and Mental Health

In a recent episode (ep. #134) of the Joy Lab podcast, we talked about resilience and mental health. The good news is that we are all resilient and as we build resilience skills, we support our mental health. Watch the episode (below) and learn more about resilience under the video. 

What is resilience?

Researcher Dr. Catherine Panter-Brick defines resilience as a process to harness resources for sustaining wellbeing. Even more simply, it's our ability to get back up again after we encounter stress. Resilience is still present amidst struggles, hardships and even mental health diagnoses. One of the most important things to also know about resilience is that it is inherent in each one of us, regardless of our circumstances or past experiences. And as we get into throughout our Resilience Series (starts ep. #136), resilience is fluid in nature and it's essential that we nurture and replenish our resilience "container" to effectively navigate life's ups and downs.

When stress hits, are you a carrot, egg, or coffee bean?

Stress gets a bad wrap when it comes to resilience. It's not an immediate sword to our resilience. There's a great metaphor from authors John Gordon and Damon West, who describe what happens when boiling water (aka stress) take over a carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean. The carrot turns to mush (aka exhaustion), the egg hardens up (aka put on a happy face and suffer in silence), and the coffee bean actually creates something quite wonderful; a hot cup of coffee. This can be helpful to illustrate how we all respond differently to stress and adversity and how we can also practice skills to navigate stress better. As we aim to navigate stress more skillfully so that it doesn't become chronic, we can tune into our innate capacity for resilience and the transformative power that lies within us.

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Joy Lab and Natural Mental Health are community-supported. When you buy through the links below, we may earn a commission. That support helps keeps the Joy Lab podcast free for all!  

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life. Your Joy Lab membership also includes our NMH Community!
  • NMH Community: Access lots of extra resilience-boosting resources (like our Sleeping Well Workshop) AND you'll join a group of inspiring folks who play an integral role in keeping this podcast going... which means powerful resources stay accessible to everyone. 
• Free Resilience Quiz and free Mini-Course: Based on decades of clinical experience, we've created a model of resilience that is both helpful and practical. True to our approach at Natural Mental Health, we start with strengths. You'll identify these strengths in your Resilience Type. Your Resilience Type highlights your unique strengths, what fuels your joy, what keeps you in balance, and the lifestyle practices that most nourish you. After you find your Resilience Type, sign up for your free mini-course to receive tailored lifestyle practices (e.g., foods to eat more of, ideal forms of exercise, supplements, and mindfulness activities) that can support your mood, resilience, and overall wellbeing.
• Joy Lab Podcast #13 (The Roots of Resilience) This episode is a broad overview of what we'll be talking about over the next 9 episodes. It's a really helpful summary!
• Chemistry of Calm (Dr. Emmons' book referenced in this series)
• Dr. Catherine Panter-Brick- Yale faculty page
• Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: interdisciplinary perspectives
• Annual Research Review: Positive adjustment to adversity -Trajectories of minimal-impact resilience and emergent resilience
• The Coffee Bean: A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change (book)
• Effects of a 12-week endurance training program on the physiological response to psychosocial stress in men: a randomized controlled trial
• No man is an island: social resources, stress and mental health at mid-life
• How does the brain deal with cumulative stress? A review with focus on developmental stress, HPA axis function and hippocampal structure in humans
• Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind (this is the study of people shocking themselves out of boredom)
• Emotion Suppression and Mortality Risk Over a 12-Year Follow-up
• Cumulative Stress and Health

• The Times of Our Lives: Interaction Among Different Biological Periodicities  

• Where to shop:
  • Our partner store at Fullscript: This is where you can find high-quality supplements and wellness products. Except for our CBD Gummies, any product links mentioned in the show notes below will require an account. Sign up for your free Fullscript account here: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/nmh/store-start
  • Resilient Remedies: This is where you can find our line of trusted, high-quality CBD gummies: https://www.resilientremedies.com/
• Subscribe to our Newsletter: Join us over at NaturalMentalHealth.com for exclusive emails, updates, and additional strategies.
• Check out our favorite resilience-boosting reads: https://bookshop.org/shop/NMHreads
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Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program.

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If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at [email protected]. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.