[BLOG POST] 12 Strategies for Building Resilience

Resilience is not a trait that you are either born with or without. It’s a set of behaviors, thoughts, and actions that can be learned and developed. When you break it down to the physical level in your brain, resilience is a neuroplastic process.  It’s really about how well your brain handles stress. 

What is Resilience?

Resilience is the process of adapting in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress,  such as family or relationship problems, serious health challenges, or workplace and financial issues. Essentially, it’s “bouncing back” from life’s difficult experiences.

Being resilient doesn’t mean that you don’t experience hard times. In fact, intense emotional pain, extreme trauma, and severe adversity are common in people who are considered resilient. The road to resilience most often involves considerable hardship. That’s how these people get resilient. Their brains build it. A resilient brain even has physical differences.

What a Resilient Brain Looks Like

According to Richard Davidson in his book, The Emotional Life of Your Brain, resilience is one dimension of your emotional style and includes greater activation in the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the brain. Davidson writes:

The amount of activation in the left prefrontal region of a resilient person can be thirty times that in someone who is not resilient.”

Davidson’s early research found that the abundance of signals back and forth from the PFC to the amygdala determines how quickly the brain recovers from being upset. The amygdala is your brain’s threat detector responsible for the fight-or-flight response. More activity in the left PFC shortens the period of amygdala activation. Less activation in certain zones of the PFC resulted in longer amygdala activity after an experience producing negative emotions. Basically, some people’s brains weren’t good at turning off negative emotion once it was turned on.

In later research with the help of MRIs, Davidson confirmed that the more white matter (axons connecting neurons) lying between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, the more resilient a person was. The converse was also true. Less white matter equates with less resilience. By turning down the amygdala, the PFC is able to quiet signals associated with negative emotions. The brain can then plan and act effectively without being overly influenced by negative emotions.

Don’t despair if you aren’t currently resilient. Every brain is capable of building more connections between the brain regions.

12 Inner Strengths that Build Resilience 

In his book, Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness, Rick Hanson writes:

Mental Resources like determination, self-worth, and kindness are what make us resilient: able to cope with adversity and push through challenges in the pursuit of opportunities. While resilience helps us recover from loss and trauma, it offers much more than that. True resilience fosters well-being, an underlying sense of happiness, love, and peace. Remarkably, as you internalize experiences of well-being, that builds inner strengths which in turn make you more resilient. Well-being and resilience promote each other in an upward spiral.”

Hanson goes on to tell us that you can build a more resilient brain in the same way you would strengthen your muscles. You do it through lots of little efforts that add up over time. Little efforts throughout your day can result in real physical changes for a better brain. You can teach your brain to be more resilient by working on the following 12 primary inner strengths:

Compassion

Compassion can be extended to yourself and others. Not to be confused with self-pity, complacency or arrogance, self-compassion involves acknowledging your own suffering, faults, and mistakes and responding with kindness, caring, and understanding, without judgment or evaluation. It’s talking to and treating yourself as you would a friend. It’s seeing your troubles and screw-ups as part of being human.

To practice self-compassion requires finding a healthy balance between self-acceptance and working for self-improvement. Instead of criticizing yourself for making a mistake or drowning in pity when things don’t go your way, you adopt a kind, but realistic view of your experience. Kristin Neff, Ph.D., a pioneer in self-compassion research, identifies three main components of the trait:

• Self-kindness – Become aware of your negative self-talk and replace the inner critic with a kinder, gentler voice.
• Common humanity –  Acknowledge that suffering and personal failure are part of the universal experience of being human.
• Mindfulness – Observe your negative emotions without reacting to, focusing on, or suppressing them.

Research shows that self-compassion is a determining factor in whether life events become setbacks from which you don’t recover or stepping stones on the path forward.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a way of thinking. At the most basic level, it’s simply being aware of what’s happening as it’s happening. Being mindful means that you become aware of the workings of your mind, at that moment. When practicing mindfulness, you deliberately direct your awareness back into the now and focus your attention there. In essence, mindfulness is training your brain. In The Meaning Of Mindfulness, I explain the five basic factors that tend to be included in all mindfulness philosophies.

By following this pattern of thought repeatedly, over time, your brain actually physically changes. Through the process of neuroplasticity, the brain forms new connections and default neuronal pathways to support this kind of thinking, even when not consciously engaging in mindfulness. The consistent practice of mindfulness calms your brain and changes its default mode of operation.

Every brain is capable of building resilience.

Learning

You change your brain through learning. Learning is a neuroplastic process. Any lasting change of mood, outlook or behavior requires learning. Science shows that only about a third of your attributes are innate in your DNA. The other two-thirds are learned.

Hanson tells us that one effective way to teach our brains to be happier, more optimistic, confident, and resilient is by having and internalizing small experiences of safety, satisfaction, and connection throughout your day. He calls this “taking in the good“. You do this through a process he calls HEAL.

1. Have a good experience.
2. Enrich it.
3. Absorb it.
4. Link positive and negative.

Grit

Hanson defines grit as “dogged, tough resourcefulness. It’s what remains after all else has been worn down”.  On his website, he says:

Much of our success in life comes down to our ability to identify the things we’re passionate about, pursue them with consistency, and keep going when things get tough. Anyone can be passionate and productive for a few days, or when things are easy. But to keep going day after day when the weather gets rough? That’s when we need grit.”

He describes grit as being based on several things:

• Agency is the sense of being a cause rather than an effect. It’s the opposite of helplessness.
• Determination is the steadfast fortitude you draw on to cope with, endure, and survive challenging events.
• Resolve is focused effort and passion towards a goal.
• Patience is the ability to delay gratification and distress tolerance.
• Persistence is sustained efforts over time.

Gratitude

Because of a negativity bias, your brain always notices, focuses on, and hangs on to what is less than ideal or potential problems. This tendency to notice and never forget the bad is just your brain doing its job, protecting you. Your brain has a good reason for its natural negativity. Your ancestors were more likely to live long enough to pass on their genes by remembering where they were chased by a predator than a prime napping spot. For this reason, there could be a tremendous amount of good in your life, but your brain doesn’t even notice it. In order to counteract this tendency, you have to intentionally look for, put emphasis on, and internalize the good that is in your life.

One way to do this is through gratitude. A wealth of research has proven significant benefits of gratitude for mental and physical health. Studies show that the practice of gratitude can increase happiness levels by an average of 25 percent and overall health by, for example, increasing the quantity and quality of sleep. Beneficial outcomes can be achieved by such simple practices as praying, writing in a gratitude journal, placing a thankful phone call, making a mental gratitude list, or writing a thank-you letter to someone.

Confidence

Confidence is developed throughout childhood and adulthood from interactions with parents, siblings, bosses, partners, friends, and enemies. If things go pretty well, you acquire a sense of worth, being cared about, and the ability to handle life. However, if a person experiences too much disapproval and rejection without accompanying encouragement and support, they can become insecure and self-critical.

No matter what has happened in the past, you can develop your confidence by training your brain to look for opportunities to support and encourage yourself. You can do this by looking for wins, accomplishments, and strengths with which to support and encourage yourself. This also requires that you become aware of your inner dialogue. Notice when it’s critical, shaming, discouraging, or judgemental. Reframe and work with your thoughts to help you.

Calm

Unfortunately, the modern world pushes many of us into a chronic state of fight-or-flight where our sympathetic nervous sytems (SNS) are frequently or continuously activated.  It’s normal to experience fear, anger, helplessness, and overwhelm from time to time. However, the cumulative damage of chronically over stimulating the SNS leads to many physical and mental health problems.

The counter to the SNS is the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). It’s often called the rest and digest system. You can think of the SNS as your gas pedal and the PNS as the brake. In his book, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom, Hanson suggests that you want to strive to exist predominantly in a baseline state PNS arousal of calm peacefulness with mild SNS activations for enthusiasm, vitality, wholesome passions, and occasional spikes to deal with demanding situations.

Hanson advises us to look for ways that we are overestimating threats, which activate the SNS, and underestimating our resources to deal with them. Then, you can utilize other practices to calm your brain and body.

Motivation

Resilience involves the continuing pursuit of goals even in the face of challenges. Motivation keeps a person moving forward. Motivation involves your brain’s reward circuit and dopamine. Dopamine gives the brain an energetic, pleasurable feeling and is responsible for reward-seeking behavior. It’s the primary neurotransmitter behind any addiction.

Your brain has a fundamental motivation circuit based on dopamine activity. Everybody has natural variations in the amount of dopamine produced. There are many ways to naturally increase dopamine. You can also strengthen this circuit by increasing the association between rewards and what you are trying to motivate yourself towards. You do this by noting your accomplishments — even the small ones — with rewards and really paying attention to and internalizing them.

Intimacy

Different degrees of intimacy are present in all relationships. Intimacy requires a balance between being vulnerable and a sense of boundaries and asserting yourself. Intimacy also requires the ability to empathize with others. Hanson writes:

Empathy is the foundation of the sense that ‘I am not alone, others are with me, we are in this together, we share a common humanity.”

You can develop and grow your empathy.

Courage

You may think you need courage to do the big things in life. However, it’s often the little, everyday interactions with others that need us to be courageous. Open, authentic communication requires that we take some risk. Oftentimes, it takes courage to be truthful and assert yourself in any relationship. This doesn’t mean that you need to forcefully make demands. It means to skillfully express yourself with good intentions while keeping an eye on the results you wish to achieve.

Aspire

To aspire is an inherent part of being alive. In his book, Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness, Hanson says:

To live is to lean into the future. We’re always stretching toward one thing or another: the next person, the next task, the next sight or sound, the next breath.”

In this life, it’s important to meet your need for satisfaction by reaching for results that have meaning to you — whatever those may be.  If you don’t have any idea, Hanson suggests that you look back to what you dreamed about and were interested in when you were young. Think about what you hoped for before the world taught you “to be sensible” and “avoid risks.” (That’s how I started writing. Life had made me “forget” my childhood dreams of being a writer. Two books and hundreds of articles later, I am a writer!)

Hanson cautions us that it is important to aspire without attachment. That means to work towards a goal, but to manage your expectations and be fundamentally at peace with whatever happens. I know — easier said than done,  but it is possible. It requires a growth mindset and being OK with failure.

Resilience is not a trait that you are born with or without. You can build it.

Generosity

Generosity is a positive cycle. It fills you up and strengthens you mentally and emotionally while connecting you with others which gives you even more to offer. The essence of generosity is altruism, which is giving without expecting anything in return. Humans evolved to be generous. It’s in our DNA. The generosity of one individual — sharing food, protecting from danger, increased the chances of survival for others.

Generosity doesn’t have to be material and often is not. Many times throughout a day you may be generous with your time, attention, patience, forgiveness, or encouragement. However, this does not mean to give because you are pressured or manipulated into it or to the point it is detrimental to you.

Source: The Best Brain Possible

[Abstract+References] Neuroplastic Changes Induced by Cognitive Rehabilitation in Traumatic Brain Injury: A Review

Abstract

Background. Cognitive deficits are among the most disabling consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to long-term outcomes and interfering with the individual’s recovery. One of the most effective ways to reduce the impact of cognitive disturbance in everyday life is cognitive rehabilitation, which is based on the principles of brain neuroplasticity and restoration. Although there are many studies in the literature focusing on the effectiveness of cognitive interventions in reducing cognitive deficits following TBI, only a few of them focus on neural modifications induced by cognitive treatment. The use of neuroimaging or neurophysiological measures to evaluate brain changes induced by cognitive rehabilitation may have relevant clinical implications, since they could add individualized elements to cognitive assessment. Nevertheless, there are no review studies in the literature investigating neuroplastic changes induced by cognitive training in TBI individuals.

Objective. Due to lack of data, the goal of this article is to review what is currently known on the cerebral modifications following rehabilitation programs in chronic TBI.

Methods. Studies investigating both the functional and structural neural modifications induced by cognitive training in TBI subjects were identified from the results of database searches. Forty-five published articles were initially selected. Of these, 34 were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria.

Results. Eleven studies were found that focused solely on the functional and neurophysiological changes induced by cognitive rehabilitation.

Conclusions. Outcomes showed that cerebral activation may be significantly modified by cognitive rehabilitation, in spite of the severity of the injury.

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[WEB SITE] Research into brain’s ability to heal itself offers hope for novel treatment of traumatic brain injury

Innovative angles of attack in research that focus on how the human brain protects and repairs itself will help develop treatments for one of the most common, costly, deadly and scientifically frustrating medical conditions worldwide: traumatic brain injury. In an extensive opinion piece recently published online on Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, Henry Ford Hospital researcher Ye Xiong, M.D., Ph.D., makes the case for pioneering work underway in Detroit and elsewhere seeking to understand and repair brain function at the molecular level.

“To date, all attempts at treating traumatic brain injury with experimental drugs have failed once testing moved from animal studies to clinical trials in humans,” Dr. Xiong explains. “Although this is disappointing, we believe innovations now at the preclinical stage hold great promise for a deeper understanding of traumatic brain injury and how to treat it.”

Also known as TBI, traumatic brain injury most commonly results from a sudden, violent blow to the head, in some cases driving broken bone into the brain, or from a bullet or other object piercing the skull and entering the brain.
This trauma sets off a complex “cascade” of reactions in the brain that can impair thinking and reasoning, behavior and movement.

Each year, at least 10 million TBIs that are serious enough to result in hospitalization or death occur around the world.
Most attempts at treatment have targeted the physical damage with drugs aimed at protecting neurons — the cells that carry messages from the brain to the rest of the body — from further damage. But while such attempts have shown promise in animal studies, they’ve all failed to help human patients.

Over the past three decades, more than 30 such clinical trials have ended in failure. More recently, evidence has been amassed by researchers showing that the human brain has “a significant, albeit limited” ability to repair itself both physically and functionally, including:

• • Angiogenesis — the creation of new blood vessels.
• • Neurogenesis — the formation of new nerve cells.
• • Oligodendrogenesis — the development of several types of cells including those that make up the myelin sheath, a protective coating on parts of nerves.
• • Axonal sprouting — the process of in which undamaged axons, threadlike parts of nerve cells that carry signals to other cells, grow new nerve endings to relink damaged neurons.

The new approach to TBI therapy described by Dr. Xiong aims at enhancing these restorative, or “neuroplastic,” processes as they work together to improve neurological recovery. “Significant advances in the understanding of the mechanisms underlying TBI’s behavioral, cognitive or psychiatric effects have been made, and the use of cell-based and pharmacological interventions to improve symptoms, function and outcome is still under development,” Dr. Xiong explains.

Among interventional drugs now in early clinical trials are:

• Glibenclamide. Already best known for treatment of type 2 diabetes, it has recently been found to significantly reduce brain swelling and bleeding after ischemic stroke, suggesting potential use for treating TBI.
• Minocycline. Derived from the antibiotic tetracycline, it has been shown in different dosages to provide both short-term and long-term benefits in treating closed head injuries in mice.
• Statins. Widely used to reduce cholesterol levels, studies at Henry Ford Hospital have demonstrated that these drugs restore cognitive function after TBI in rats.

Other promising investigational biologics and drugs that are now in promising preclinical development at Henry Ford include thymosin beta 4, exosomes recombinant human tissue plasminogen activator and microRNAs.
“Although it is still important to further investigate neuroprotective treatments for TBI, these novel, neurorestorative or neuroplastic approaches will facilitate development of treatments for TBI with the ultimate goal of reducing brain injury, promoting brain repair and remodeling, and eventually improving functional recovery and quality of life,” Dr. Xiong concludes.

Research into brain’s ability to heal itself offers hope for novel treatment of traumatic brain injury — Bloglovin.