MVCC's Approach to Building Resilience

According to the APA, resilience is “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.” [1] Further, that organization holds that several factors contribute to how well people adapt to adversities, which, when properly cultivated and practiced, result in positively adapting and overcoming those adversities. The predominant factors include:

• How people view and engage with the world
• The availability and quality of social resources
• The specific coping strategies used (i.e., actions or thought processes used in meeting a stressful or unpleasant situation or in modifying one’s reaction to such a situation) [2]

Physical resilience involves the things that sustain life, such as food, water, sleep, and health. Though God designed your body to crave these things naturally, they're sometimes easy to overlook in the heat of busy schedules and life's interruptions. Sustaining them requires your concerted effort to thrive in this area.

For example, there is a difference between eating and physical activity associated with minimal survival versus consuming a balanced diet and exercising regularly to develop the strength and stamina required to maintain good health. Mark Gerber concurred, saying regular exercise increases one's physical resiliency against stress, burnout, and related issues. [3]

Emotional resilience involves recognizing how chronic stress and fatigue cause emotional exhaustion and learning to respond appropriately to overcome it. According to Gary Taylor, this issue occurs when you have trouble separating yourself from the problems of those you serve, whether at work or home. [4]

MVCC recommends building emotional resiliency by discussing your feelings about job workload, stress, burnout, and related issues with a trusted partner. For example, intentionally set aside a regular meeting time with your spouse, accountability partner, co-worker, or supervisor to discuss how these challenges affect you, ask if you exhibit any of the warning signs, discuss how you can insulate yourself from others' problems while still helping them, and pray together for the Lord's guidance.

The Holy Bible emphasizes that God created mankind in His image (Gen. 1:27, English Standard Version) and established relationships among them (Gen. 2:18). Furthermore, Scripture generally addresses the following prioritization: God first (Deut. 6:5), followed by one's spouse (Eph. 5:22-25), children (Prov. 22:6; Eph. 6:4), parents (Deut. 5:17; Eph. 6:1-3), family members (1 Tim. 5:8), fellow believers (Rom. 14:10; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:32; 1 Thes. 5:18; Heb. 10:25), and finally, everyone else (Matt. 28:19).

Relational resilience involves setting aside time to strengthen your relationships. For example, you might reserve time daily and weekly with your spouse, nightly for your children, and monthly for your parents, if not more often. Then, schedule time with an accountability partner, co-worker, or supervisor to foster friendships beyond workplace relationships. Maintaining your relationships in this manner develops bonds that encourage honest discussion about how life, stress, burnout, and related issues affect you, and they can provide support from those closest to you.

Spiritual resilience rests squarely on each person’s all-important relationship with Jesus Christ as the basis for the forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal salvation (John 14:6). The Bible clearly states those who sincerely confess their sins and accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior become “believers” who are immediately, irrevocably, and spiritually changed and restored to a right relationship with God for eternity (Rom. 10:9). Conversely, God guarantees eternal spiritual death to those who reject Christ (Matt. 10:33; John 12:48). Peter Scazzero agreed, saying focusing on a loving union with God that brings Him into every area of life will further strengthen your relationship with Christ.[5]

Even though one becomes saved by God’s grace through their faith in Christ Jesus, the Bible does not guarantee an easy life as the sin-marred, physical world describes it. However, for believers, it promises the blessings, hope, patience, and joy that only Christ can provide amid troubles and adversity, which helps them overcome life’s challenges, including stress and burnout (John 16:33). Conversely, God withholds such benefits from those who reject Christ and leave them to the mercy of their sin (James 1:6; 4:3).

For these reasons, MVCC holds a proper relationship with Christ in the highest regard, deeming it critical to building resilience and a solid self-care recovery plan against stress, burnout, and related issues.

Considering this information, it remains clear that hope and help are available for those suffering from these issues. Please return to the Services page to review MVCC's instructional videos that consolidate this information.

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