Mental resilience is the ability to endure stress with minimal consequences, to overcome life’s troubles, to think soberly, not to fall into depression. In times of crisis, our survival depends on it. You can train your mental stability.
Nate Zinser heads the Department of Psychology at the US Military Academy in West Point. His job is to teach the military how to endure the worst conditions on the battlefield. Zinser shares the military secrets of resilience in his book Confident Mind. Here are three tips and techniques:
Train yourself to relax on command.
Being able to turn off endless thoughts in your brain so you can really relax may seem like a gift from nature: some people just have it, and some people can’t. But it’s actually a skill you can learn. The military has long taught soldiers to sleep on command, and psychology offers some tips on how to calm your noisy brain and relax even in stressful situations.
Zinser offers to learn these simple but powerful tricks and get used to using them in any short “windows” that you have. Even two minutes of deep breathing and relaxation can be helpful.
“With deep breathing, you are essentially resting your brain and triggering physiological changes: blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen uptake and lactate accumulation in the blood,” explains the US military.
Don’t waste your energy on the negative.
People with addictions are taught to pray for peace as they recover. “Give me peace to accept what I can’t change, courage to change what I can, and wisdom to know the difference,” the future military at West Point said.
Zinser emphasizes that negative emotions, such as anger and fear, drain our energy. To help maintain his mental and physical strength, he teaches cadets to recognize when negative emotions will not help, and to avoid sighs and complaints at all costs.
Fill the fuel tank.
Even the most enduring warriors cannot have mental (or even physical) strength from the air. Instead, Zinser teaches us to remember what needs to be done to “fill our tanks” and to have it as a priority.
“Do what you need to be efficient and have energy in a suboptimal environment,” he instructs, whether it’s extra sleep or extra time to prepare for a difficult task. Zinser emphasizes that this often means giving up other things, regaining strength should be your priority.