To counteract trauma and bounce back from adversity and inequality, and thus become resilient, nothing beats the advice of Boris Cyrulnik who is the founding father of research on this concept. By the way, I invite you to watch his fascinating lectures on youtube.

He describes the recipe for resilience as follows:

• Action,

• Affection

• Reflection.

Action and affection secrete endorphins, molecules that naturally calm your restless mind. By moving and showing affection to ourselves and our loved ones we put ourselves in a state of joy, gratitude and this has the effect of modifying brain activity (Prathik Kini, 2016; Xin Hu, 2017).

Reflection can take place through meditation, spirituality, or simply writing.

Diving into oneself allows one to bring out one's resources, to let go of the past in order to live in a present that looks to the future.

What is resilience?

Etymology: from the Latin "resilire", meaning to bounce back.

In physics, resilience is the capacity of materials to resist shocks or to return to their initial shape after being compressed or deformed. (Larousse)

In psychology, we define resilience as the ability to achieve a positive outcome in the face of adversity (Karatsoreos & McEwen, 2011, 2013 a, 2013 b, 2014; McEwen, Gray, & Nasca, 2015)

Recent human developmental and psychological research over the past two decades has demonstrated that resilience in children and adults is a common outcome following adversity - representing successful adaptation to stress.

In the general population, it is estimated that 50-60% of people experience severe trauma in their lifetime. However, the prevalence of the disease is estimated to be only 7.8% (Russo SJ, 2012).

These two figures are a powerful demonstration of the resilience that we all possess.

Children, in particular, are remarkably resilient to a range of negative environmental stressors.

Resilience capacities depend, in part, on the normal development of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus (Russo et al., 2012). These structures are modified by chronic stress and circadian disruptions including the experience of poverty. In the brain, exposure to negative early life experiences, including poverty, impairs the development of the prefrontal cortex, leading to deficits in planning and working memory (Hackman, Farah, & Meaney, 2010) and also leads to stress, low self-esteem and depression (Adriano, Caltagirone & Spalletta, 2012; McEwen, 2006).

Resilience is embedded in all of us, like a strength lurking deep in our guts to rise up in the face of life's adversity. However, self-awareness and willpower are essential for an individual to actively resist adversity or learn from bad experiences and recover.

However, although essential, they are often antagonised by inequalities in one's development.

It is only through regular emotional, cognitive and physical development work that these inequalities can be smoothed out to create new neural patterns and thus use the neuroplasticity of the brain to change certain personality traits (Ilia N Karatsoreos, 2013)

A healthy brain changes your life on all levels.

Bibliography:

Russo SJ, Murrough JW, Han MH, Charney DS, Nestler EJ. Neurobiology of resilience. Nat Neurosci. 2012;15(11):1475-1484. doi:10.1038/nn.3234

The Neuroscience of Resilienc Richard G. Hunter, Jason D. Gray, and Bruce S. McEwen University of Massachusetts, BostonThe Rockefeller UniversityThe Rockefeller University

Kini P, Wong J, McInnis S, Gabana N, Brown JW. The effects of gratitude expression on neural activity. Neuroimage. 2016 Mar;128:1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.12.040. Epub 2015 Dec 30. PMID: 26746580.

Hu X, Yu J, Song M, Yu C, Wang F, Sun P, Wang D, Zhang D. EEG Correlates of Ten Positive Emotions. Front Hum Neurosci. 2017 Jan 26;11:26. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00026. PMID: 28184194; PMCID: PMC5266691.

Karatsoreos IN, McEwen BS. Annual Research Review: The neurobiology and physiology of resilience and adaptation across the life course. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013 Apr;54(4):337-47. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12054. Erratum in: J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013 Jul;54(7):812. Karatoreos, Ilia N [corrected to Karatsoreos, Ilia N]. PMID: 23517425.