Understandably, the concept of resilience is getting a lot of attention in the current global climate. Without doubt, these are tough times for many of us and, as we can’t avoid the adverse circumstances we’re faced with, it makes sense that we shift our focus to how to best deal with them.

Resilience basically refers to the quality of being able to bounce back and recover from a difficult or challenging situation. Moreover, it may not only represent the ability to maintain well-being in the face of adversity, but also the ability to actually increase that well-being under such circumstances.

Of course, this is a desirable quality to possess at any time, but its importance has gained more widespread salience as we face the range of challenges set about by the current pandemic. Indeed, it is often thought that crises bring out the best in people and show what people are really made of, giving many a chance to demonstrate their resilience. On the flip side, crises can reveal the absence of this quality, which can (often quite cruelly, and unhelpfully) be stigmatized as weakness. The question, then, becomes one of how we develop and maintain this positive attribute.

Resilience is related to a person’s confidence levels and perceptions of self-efficacy. If a person feels that they have the resources to cope with a difficult situation, they will perceive it as a surmountable challenge. Physiologically, this can promote the production of adrenaline and create a state of preparedness for a proactive response. On the other hand, if a person feels they are unable to cope with a situation, they perceive it as a threat, which stimulates the release of cortisol and leaves the body in a defensive state.

So one way that we might develop resilience is by working directly on changing our perceptions. We might try to reappraise the situation itself, as with the familiar ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ technique of trying to find the positives. Or we could change the way we perceive our own resources to deal with the situation. This might take the form of positive self-talk or a reappraisal of our physiological responses, for instance.

“In the same way that you become physically strong through repeated exercise, you become psychologically strong through repeated mental challenge.”

One thing that appears clear is that resilience is not developed without exposure to adversity. The title of this article, although penned somewhat tongue-in-cheek, was intended to make the point that there are no ‘10 easy steps to developing resilience’. In the same way that you become physically strong through repeated exercise, you become psychologically strong through repeated mental challenge. In both cases the principle is the same: exerting yourself against a resisting force promotes development.

Of course, there is a danger of overexposure, which can be counterproductive. Facing too much adversity can cause a paralysing level of mental trauma, just like being hit by a car can cause a parallel degree of physical trauma. What we want to do is to face adversity in controlled doses and gradually build up our resilience without causing injury, so that we have the tools to maintain our well-being when life dishes out the bigger challenges.

Adventure pursuits offer an ideal context in which to achieve this. On a simple level, being outdoors removes people from many of the comforts often taken for granted in everyday life. This creates a greater degree of challenge in carrying out even basic daily tasks, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the importance of these tasks. For example, being forced to dig a snow cave in order to take shelter from a storm can induce a level of stress that promotes the future development of resilience. And it’s likely to also leave you with a greater sense of appreciation for the shelter provided by your normal home.

The element of danger present in many adventure pursuits can be of further benefit as it will often elicit an emotional response that provides an ideal platform to practise reappraisal techniques. For example, for me scaling a cliff face can promote an acute awareness of my fear response. And as I feel my heart start to pound I have gained an opportunity to practise replacing my customary interpretation, “this is a sign of impending doom!”, with a more positive one, “this is my body switching to high level in preparation for success!”

In our business of designing and conducting adventure programmes, our role is to construct challenges that take participants out of their comfort zone in a controlled way to promote psychological development, and to coach participants by explicitly providing the mental tools and strategies that form part of that development.

Research has indicated that greater levels of adversity are connected to a greater sense of what the ancient Greeks referred to as eudaimonia. Philosophically speaking, eudaimonia is happiness in the sense that is related to meaning and purpose in life, as opposed to superficial pleasure or material acquisitions. Arguably, it is a deeper sense of happiness, and one that is not always promoted in our modern culture. If there is a silver lining to the cloud of this current pandemic, it could be just this: that it prompts us to each dig deep and reveal our inner strength, and in doing so to also uncover greater value in our lives.