Boost your resilience: how to handle crises better

What is resilience?

The word resilience originally comes from physics, where it describes a material's ability to return to its original shape after being deformed. In psychology, it means much the same thing: the ability to come through crises and setbacks intact and find your way back to a stable state.

Resilience from a scientific perspective

There's no single agreed definition in science. But the central idea is how we handle stress: It's not about never feeling stressed, but about managing that stress and growing from it. Both inner resources and external factors play an equally important role in this.

A resilient person isn't simply invulnerable. They have strategies that help in a crisis and a network to help them regain their footing. And while stressful situations leave many people feeling paralysed, resilient people tend to see them as challenges instead.

Why does resilience matter so much?

How we handle crises has real, tangible consequences. Beyond the generally greater ability to cope, studies show wide-ranging effects in people who display resilience:

Resilience has an influence on far more than just how we deal with individual crises. Its effects are measurable across all key areas of life.

Can resilience be learnt?

In short: yes.

Resilience isn't an innate quality you either have or you don't. It shifts across an entire lifetime in response to experience, environment and behaviour. It can also be strengthened through targeted measures – from therapy to simple everyday habits. Staying calm under pressure isn't a matter of character; it's a learnable pattern.

So how do I become more resilient?

Resilience can't be built with a single trick. It's made up of different interlocking components – which is why research often groups them into the "7 pillars of resilience". Each pillar can be trained and strengthened through concrete techniques.

Pillar 1: Self-care

The foundation of resilience is your own body and mind. Neglect that foundation and you simply won't have the resources to get through a crisis. Self-care means ensuring your basic physical and mental needs are met – especially during stressful periods.

This can be practised by taking the following concrete steps:

• Healthy lifestyle: A healthy lifestyle is an essential base for building resilience. The most important elements: regular, sufficient sleep, consistent physical activity and a balanced diet. More tips on making your lifestyle healthier can be found in longevity research.
• Routines: Fixed daily structures create stability and reduce decision fatigue. It might sound unremarkable, but it has a direct effect on resilience: People who have structure in their daily lives have more mental capacity available for what really matters when a crisis hits.

Pillar 2: Acceptance

Acceptance is a fundamental attitude that creates a second, inner foundation for resilience. When you fight an unchangeable situation internally, you stay stuck in a state of resistance. When you accept it, you create the conditions to become capable of acting again.

These exercises can help you cultivate acceptance:

• What can I influence, and what can’t I? Asking yourself this question is the starting point for acceptance – and brings clarity.
• Practise self-compassion: Acceptance also applies inwards. In practice, that means noticing your own mistakes, putting them in perspective and letting them go – rather than turning them over in your mind again and again.

Pillar 3: Optimism

Anyone who wants to be resilient needs to internalise another core attitude: that difficult situations can fundamentally be overcome and that the future can be a positive one. Optimism here doesn't mean blindly putting a positive spin on things – it means developing a stable sense of assurance.

The following approaches can help you embed this outlook:

• Positive reappraisal (cognitive reframing): What can I take from this situation? This isn't about minimising difficulties. Rather, it's an effective tool for building optimism and resilience that can be applied in almost any challenging situation.
• Gratitude journal: Each evening, write down three things that went well that day – however small. Over time, this durably shifts your focus towards the positive.
  

Pillar 4: Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy starts where change is possible. It’s the belief that you can steer and shape your own life. Essentially, this means taking action and assuming responsibility for yourself.

The most powerful way to build self-efficacy is through one thing: a sense of achievement. When you see that your actions make a difference, you build trust in your own abilities. The best way to do this is by breaking down major challenges into smaller goals. Keeping a success journal can also strengthen self-efficacy – writing down your own achievements trains your focus on your capabilities.

Pillar 5: Solution orientation

Once you’ve built self-efficacy, you can take the next step: actively looking for solutions. In difficult moments, resilient people don’t start by asking “Why did this happen?”, but rather “What can I do now?”. This shift in perspective sounds simple, but it has a significant impact on your ability to recover from crises.

In practice, solution orientation can be developed through these techniques:

• What can I influence, and what can’t I? This question is not only key to greater acceptance. Knowing where you can actually make a difference allows you to direct your energy there.
• One step at a time: Don’t wait for the perfect solution – just start with a first step. Especially in a crisis, this mindset creates momentum and a sense of progress.

Pillar 6: Future orientation

Knowing where you want to go – and why – helps you find an anchor that provides stability even in the hardest moments. There’s no fixed rule as to what this must be: a dream, a purpose, spiri­tuality, or something quite different. What matters is that it gives meaning and direction.

In practice, it helps to set small anchors for the future: tangible reference points for your vision that you can focus on.

Pillar 7: Network orientation

In crisis situations, the people around you play an important role: Close social connections provide a sense of security. In fact, building a social “safety net” directly strengthens your resilience. This is where quality takes precedence over quantity: What matters is not how many people you know, but who you can truly rely on.

What really strengthens your network:

• Go deeper: Dare to have meaningful conversations. Be open, honest, and go beyond the surface level.
• Give & take: Offer support to others and be willing to accept it yourself. This is sometimes harder than it sounds, but it’s essential for your resilience.

The “extra pillar”: Mindfulness

Alongside the seven pillars, mindfulness is another powerful lever for greater resilience. Consciously tuning into the present moment has been shown to reduce stress and strengthen the ability to regulate emotions. Being mindful also helps you recognise more clearly when you need a break or some support.

Here's how to train mindfulness:

• Meditation: The simplest way to start is to spend just 5–10 minutes a day breathing consciously. A guided meditation can be a helpful aid.
• Forest bathing: Consciously immersing yourself in nature can heighten your awareness of the present moment.
• Specific exercises: There's a whole range of mindfulness practices that can be incorporated into daily life.

Boundaries & self-protection in daily life

Systematically strengthening these pillars will make you more resilient – here the research is clear. But just as important as building resilience is taking a realistic look at its limits: No one has an endless capacity to cope. That's not a weakness – it's simply human.

We live in a world that demands more of us than ever before. Not every challenge has to be swallowed, not every pressure endured. Sometimes the most effective thing you can do is simply say no. Turn down a task. Consciously let something go. Protecting your energy before it runs out is a more sustainable form of self-care than any resilience training.