How to Improve Resilience in Midlife
By TARA PARKER-POPEJULY 25, 2017 in the New York Times
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| Photo by Sarah Williamson |
Much of
the scientific research on resilience — our ability to bounce back from
adversity — has focused on how to build resilience in children. But what about
the grown-ups?
While
resilience is an essential skill for healthy childhood development, science
shows that adults also can take steps to boost resilience in middle age, which
is often the time we need it most. Midlife can bring all kinds of stressors,
including divorce, the death of a parent, career setbacks and retirement
worries, yet many of us don’t build the coping skills we need to meet these
challenges.
The
good news is that some of the qualities of middle age — a better ability to
regulate emotions, perspective gained from life experiences and concern for
future generations — may give older people an advantage over the young when it
comes to developing resilience, said Adam Grant, a management and psychology
professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
“There
is a naturally learnable set of behaviors that contribute to resilience,” said
Dr. Grant, who, with Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook,
wrote the book “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and
Finding Joy.” “Those are the behaviors that we gravitate to more and
more as we age.”
Scientists
who study stress and resilience say it’s important to think of resilience as an
emotional muscle that can be strengthened at any time. While it’s useful to
build up resilience before a big or small crisis hits, there still are active
steps you can take during and after a crisis to speed your emotional recovery.
To read
full article, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/well/mind/how-to-boost-resilience-in-midlife.html
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