We all juggle family, friends, hobbies, work and many other commitments, day in, day out. Sometimes we might wobble, struggling to keep all the balls in the air at once. Even still, we are constantly coping with out-of-the-ordinary situations, both big and small, without everything coming crashing down.
We owe this to our mental immune system – what’s known as our resilience. It protects us from illnesses of the mind, just as our biological immune system protects the body. Mental illness affects around a quarter of all people in Germany every year.
But, most of the time, our resilience proves stronger and when we are born, everyone is endowed with the same amount of it. This mental immune system can be trained like a muscle and what makes the difference is that those who consciously work on it strengthen their own health and increase their personal well-being.
Resilience test
25 simple questions – clear answers! Discover how strong your mental immune system is, not just in times of crisis!
Our mental immune system helps us to successfully navigate everyday life with all its ups and downs. What’s known as resilience can be trained like a muscle. With the “Mind Your Head” campaign, we are supporting our policyholders in actively doing something for their own health and personal well-being.
Resilience – what is it?
Resilience refers to the ability to not lose your emotional balance so easily in difficult times or being able to restore this balance quickly. Resilient people are better able to withstand stressful situations, crises and even blows of fate. They trust in their ability to solve problems and muster the strength and motivation to continue walking the path set before them.
How strong our resilience is depends on various external and internal factors. A stable social environment and a feeling of security are some of the external influences, whereas internal factors include self-confidence and an optimistic, realistic mindset, for example.
The foundations for a person’s resilience are laid in childhood, but we can also strengthen our mental immune system as adults. Keeping connected to other people, leading a healthy lifestyle and positive thinking make you mentally strong and resilient.
Stress
- the instinctive physical and emotional reaction to challenging situations
- characterised by increased alertness in preparation for fight or flight
Good or bad stress?
Whether it’s pressure to meet deadlines, conflicts or multitasking – stress is part of life. How long these situations last as well as our personal perception and our available resources in particular determine how we (can) deal with challenges.
Good stress (also known as eustress) occurs for a limited period of time. It is characterised by the fact that we view a challenge as exciting and feel like we are able to master it. Eustress has a motivating and activating effect and improves our creative problem-solving skills. Once the stressful situation has passed, we are left with the feeling that we have really achieved a lot.
Bad stress (or distress) puts us under a lot of pressure. It creeps in when we feel we’re at the mercy of external circumstances. Over the long term, stress makes us both mentally and physically ill, resulting in exhaustion, sadness, irritability, sleep or eating disorders, reduced performance and anxiety disorders.
Harnessing our strengths to combat stress
Nowadays, we rarely find ourselves in life-threatening situations where we need our instincts to kick in and react with stress. But you can’t just switch off your instincts. We also can’t control how much something is going to stress us out. This is because our brain filters and responds to every perception before it even reaches our conscious mind.
That being said, we do have influence over our conscious perception and our way of thinking. A positive attitude makes us more inclined to see challenges and crises as something we can overcome on our own, making it easier to cope with stressful situations.
We can train this positive mindset by regularly taking time to acknowledge our strengths. They have proven their worth many times over the course of our lives and have freed us from many a stressful situation. This means we can trust our own abilities. This confidence gives us hope and makes us fundamentally more resistant to the bad kind of stress.
We cannot influence what stresses us out. However, we can learn to deal with stress and not to always perceive it as unpleasant. This makes it easier to deal with its causes. It increases our confidence in our own abilities, improves our well-being and thus strengthens our mental immune system.
Resources and stressors
Resources arm us for challenging situations, whereas stressors, on the other hand, make it more difficult to overcome obstacles and can leave us feeling overwhelmed. If many stressors come together, the challenge becomes overwhelming. The more resources we have at our disposal, the easier it will be for us to weather even stormy times.
MBSR training
MBSR training combines approaches from psychology and stress research with meditative exercises. Thanks to the support of qualified specialists, you can ideally incorporate these strategies into your everyday life.
Mindful stretching
Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms hanging loosely at your sides.
With each breath, stretch out your arms and raise them, first up to your shoulders and then right up over your head.
Be mindful of the stretch and any other sensations that arise and then lower your arms back down with the next breath.
Repeat the exercise with each arm separately. The exercise can be a welcome momentary distraction, is good for body and mind and helps you to concentrate on the moment.
Body scan
Make sure you are in a comfortable and stable position, then close your eyes. Breathe in and out deeply.
Focus in on individual parts of your body one at a time, from your toes to your feet upwards throughout your whole body.
Take a mental note of what you feel – warmth or cold, heaviness or lightness.
The exercise helps you to consciously perceive your own body and accept it as it is. It also strengthens your ability to live in the present moment.