Building resilience and antifragility against stress

In our fast-paced lives, stress can take a toll on our health, leading to various diseases. While we can't eliminate all sources of stress, we can learn to reduce its impact and build resilience—the ability to bounce back from stress.

A newsletter from Harvard Medical School describes how building resilience can help you battle stress and win.

Harvard philosopher-psychologist William James observed that "healthy-minded" individuals, optimistic and positive, seemed to handle challenges more effectively. Statistician and risk-management specialist Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined the term "antifragile" for these characteristics, defining it as the ability to gain strength from volatility and uncertainty.

The Navy Seals exemplify antifragility, managing high levels of stress and functioning admirably in life-threatening situations. Brain scans reveal altered activation in their insula, a region involved in managing stress signals.

As a group, Navy Seals exhibit at least seven characteris­tics of resilient people:

• Calm, innovative, nondogmatic thinking
• The ability to act decisively
• Tenacity
• Inter­personal connectedness
• Honesty
• Self-control
• Optimism and a positive perspective on life

Whether adopting a "healthy-minded" approach, cultivating antifragility, or emulating the Navy Seals' traits, building resilience is a powerful tool to combat stress. It's not an innate trait but a capacity that can be developed with the right approach.