Resilience is an essential skill that leads us through our challenges allowing us to adapt and thrive within a changing landscape. 

The last 2 years have tested our resilience in various aspects including work and life.

But what is resilience? 

Resilience is the ability to skillfully cope with and recover from adversity, challenge and crisis. This skill is essential to our emotional well-being; it enables us to recover from trauma of any kind-small struggles or life-changing hurdles. It also helps us respond empathetically to others in need (instead of averting our gaze, panicking or losing hope).

This brings up the question, how can we move the dial and strengthen our resilience during challenging times? The study outlined below suggests that developing compassion is key to growing resilience. What if, just like strengthening a muscle or learning a new hobby, we could train ourselves to be more compassionate and calm in the face of others’ suffering?

This is the question that researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison posed in a recent study, titled “Visual Attention to Suffering After Compassion Training Is Associated With Decreased Amygdala Responses.” Their findings suggest that as little as two weeks of compassion meditation training can alter the way people respond to others’ suffering.

While this research has obvious applications for first responders, law enforcement, front-line workers and others exposed to suffering regularly, it could also affect the rest of us as we often struggle with the many challenging issues in the world while still trying to show up for work, our families, and everything else on our plates. 

From the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to the ongoing struggle for racial justice, to the war in Ukraine – the last few years have been tough for us all and it can be hard to remain resilient in a chaotic and uncertain climate.

Why train compassion?

Compassion training helps you to not turn away from difficulty.

In the study, 24 participants practiced either 30 minutes of compassion meditation or reappraisal training (reframing personally stressful events to diminish negative emotions) once a day for two weeks. The compassion meditation group practiced what’s commonly called a loving-kindness practice, a simple mindfulness practice that involves directing well wishes and compassion toward other people (as well as ourselves). This practice typically focuses inward with ourselves initially, then moves to loved ones and finally toward people we don’t know. This kind of loving-kindness practice is a little like exercising a muscle, gradually increasing the “weight” in terms of the relationships as our compassion expands.

Before and after the two-week training, all of the participants received brain scans. In the scanner, they viewed both evocative images of people suffering and neutral images of people. Participants were asked to apply their training, so those who had learned loving-kindness directed compassion toward the individuals, such thoughts as, “May this person be happy and free from suffering,” while the reappraisal group remade the situation by thinking, “This person is an actor and isn’t really suffering.”

Results came via eye-tracking technology, which noted where people focused on an image, whether it was looking at the least emotionally charged areas of images or directly at the person suffering, and for how long. Researchers then compared this to the time spent looking at the socially relevant places (i.e., faces) in the neutral photos.

The group that practiced loving-kindness meditation tended to look more directly at the images of suffering and showed less activity in the brain’s areas associated with emotional distress. These results suggest that compassion training could help people be more compassionate and calm in the face of suffering.

How to strengthen resilience with compassion

Strengthening resilience

Resilience requires this steadiness of mind and willingness to "be with" suffering rather than turn away from it. As poet Robert Frost said, “the best way out is always through.” Our ability to face others’ suffering with compassion strengthens our capacity to meet the challenges in our own life with resilience.

Along with resilience come the paramount concepts of flexibility and adaptability. Actively working on these aids in expanding upon your resilience as well as your open mindedness in tough situations. 

Additionally, taking time to practice compassion including self compassion is necessary to nurture oneself, support one’s well-being, and ability to show up in difficult situations.

Resilience expert Linda Graham outlines two self compassion practices to increase the brain’s capacity for resilience in “Self-Compassion Practices to Deepen Your Resilience.” 

Intentional time writing down or repeating to yourself “Compassion is a resource for resilience, and you are equally as deserving of your own compassion as others are” can make a large difference during challenging times.

Interested in learning about other practices to strengthen your resilience, check out our Adaptive Resilience program or contact us if you have questions at info@siyglobal.com