Be SMART: Manage Stress and Become Resilient ~ by Bindu Vyas
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
Steve Maraboli1
The last two years have demonstrated stress is unavoidable. Now, more than ever, it’s important to understand stress and how we can manage it2.
Be SMART*, learn to manage stress and become resilient. Resilient people achieve a greater quality of life and an enhanced sense of well-being. Research-supported self-care practices based on mind-body medicine help consciously bring about the relaxation response and increase resiliency leading to enhanced health and symptom reduction3.
Resilience involves the ability to recover and rebound from challenges and setbacks. Being resilient can be important for helping people deal with a variety of problems and bounce back from trauma.
Many of the physical and mental health concerns we experience, such as headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, autoimmune disorders, anxiety, depression, and insomnia are exacerbated by stress. Stress management and resilience building are particularly important to health4.
What Does it mean to be Resilient?5
Being resilient means facing difficulties head-on instead of falling into despair or using unhealthy coping strategies. Resilience is often defined as the mental reservoir of strength that helps people handle stress and hardship.
Resilient people are able to draw upon this strength to cope and recover from challenges, even when they face significant traumas, such as job loss, financial problems, serious illness, relationship challenges, or the death of a loved one.
Resilience also means understanding that life is full of challenges. While we cannot avoid many of these problems, we can remain open, flexible, and willing to adapt to change.
Self-care practices help to buffer daily stress and develop your own resiliency and lifestyle goals. Regularly practice relaxation response and identify your own stress warning signs. Manage stress by practicing resiliency tools from positive psychology and cognitive behavioral psychology. Incorporate healthy eating, physical activity, restorative sleep, and social connectedness for stress reduction. Regain control and build resilience through a variety of mind body principles and self-care interventions, leading to reduced medical symptoms and enhanced quality of life.
- be a manager: manage stress
- be resilient: adapt to change
- be positive: imagine and hope
- be relaxed: elicit relaxation response
Be SMART: Manage Stress, Be Resilient, Positive and Relaxed.
Given the times we live in, act now, pull the plug on stress, and develop the Very Well Mind.
Consider joining us for the one-hour free introductory workshop: Manage Stress and Be Resilient.
References:
- Steve Maraboli, radio talk show host and author of “Life, the Truth, and Being Free,”
- Stress and Stress Management, ICC Blog
- *SMART (Stress Management and Resilience Training) is developed by the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Top of Form
- National Institute of Health
- What does it mean to be resilient? Kendra Cherry
