Build resilience through social, spiritual, and professional connections.

In this post, you will:

• Learn how social, spiritual, and professional connections build resilience.

• Get self-coaching tips on how to build connections. As part of our series on resilience, we are exploring ways to build lifestyles that thrive and stay healthy through difficult and challenging times. In this blog post, we will look at the different connections we need as human beings that contribute to our resilience. We will look at social, spiritual, and professional connections.

One of the core characteristics of resilience is the ability to work through challenging circumstances, remaining hopeful that you will be able to overcome and rise above the challenges.

With that said one of the surest ways to lose focus and become despondent is isolation.

A study that was done by Applied Research Quality Life showed that feelings of loneliness have a negative effect on your mental health. Furthermore, a study by Frontiers in Psychology on the effects of isolation during COVID-19 showed that isolation increases depression and has negative impacts on mental health. To build resilience, from this perspective, we need to invest in human interaction and supportive structures in our lives to buffer our resilience.

The first connection that builds resilience, is social connection.

Social connections are vital to resilience for ourselves and also for those around us. Being in Christian ministry for close to twenty years I have observed that people naturally pull away from social connections when they are going through challenging times, creating a vulnerable toxic loop for themselves.

When social connections however intentionally reach out to people who pull away, it nurtures and reenergizes people who are vulnerable.

Awareness of this can assist us to be intentional to remain socially connected especially when we feel a need to isolate ourselves. It also encourages us to seek out those who isolate themselves from our social connections.

Secondly, spiritual connections build resilience.

In the context of this conversation, we refer to a healthy Christian community that regularly meets to support and care for each other. Resilience, as we have seen in our previous blog post, is strongly connected to our ability to connect with God. Being part of a Christian community assists with our connection to God because we are in contact with like-minded people who seek God.

Thirdly, our professional connections build resilience.

Connecting with groups in similar industries to yours builds a professional network that can give you the necessary perspective that we are not facing challenges alone. This creates a sense of togetherness which builds resilience. Professional connections also provide opportunities to rely on each other during difficult seasons. A great example of this is the agricultural industry. Every farmer will tell you; you cannot survive as a farmer alone; you need the experience and friendship of others to survive and in other words, bolster your resilience.

Coach U

To grow our connections to build resilience we need to understand that healthy connections are mutually beneficial connections built on trust and respect. Here are some coaching questions that will help you build stronger connections.

• In what ways can I be more helpful to others and less self-centered?

• What are one or two connections that I can invest in to strengthen?

• Which connections have I neglected; how can I revive those connections?

Disclaimer Policy: All True-Potential publications are written to assist with growth and discovery, the content of this publication should be used according to our disclaimer policy. Please refer to our disclaimer policy for more information.

© 2023 Ivan Venter, All Rights Reserved.

#resilience #truepotential #coachivanventer #christiancoach