Resilience is defined as “The process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress” (American Psychological Association, n.d.). Events like COVID-19 can increase stress; thus, taking steps to proactively safeguard your and your colleague’s well-being to foster resilience is essential.
The 3 simple steps you can exercise every day and strategies to mitigate stress:
- Recognize if YOU are feeling stress or anxiety and take steps to manage it. Acknowledge that what you are feeling is normal.
- Find someone trusted you can talk to. Being able to verbalize how you feel is sometimes all you need to lessen your anxiety.
- Limit your exposure to news and social media.
- Verbalize what you need and accept help from others.
- Practice self-care.
- Ensure you get breaks. Find a place where you can be alone and have some reflective time. Even a short period of time to step away and decompress can go a long way.
- Have nutritious snacks available that can easily be picked up and eaten at all times.
- Cultivate kindness and recognition.
- Everyone around you is most likely feeling the same stress and exhaustion. Do one random act of kindness a day. The feeling you will get knowing you made someone’s day will energize you as well. And even if you’re not expecting it, you’re bound to get it back in return when you create a culture of kindness and recognition.