14 DAY TRIAL // Spanish investigators at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) say that learning how to cope with unfavorable situations is key towards living a happy, satisfactory life. The findings do not apply to the well-off, but to the vast majority of the population.
Life is full of ups and downs for most of us, so learning how to deal with the rough situations leaves more time to enjoy the good part. The research team says that people tend to display a wide variety of responses to adversity, some of which are really detrimental to our well-being.
When faced with a traumatic event, adapting to the new situation is the key to moving forward. Some individuals never get past the loss of a loved one, whereas others get their lives back together, after experiencing a period of intense grief, anxiety, depression and other negative emotions.
There are also cases when adversities make people stronger and better than they ever were. The change is not observed by others, most of the time, but reported by these individuals themselves. The conclusion belongs to a study of 254 students.
Researchers focused primarily on the link between participants' levels of resilience and their ability to recover emotionally from a traumatic event. The team says that the 20 percent of test subjects who reported being very resilient were also the happiest and most satisfied with their lives.
People in this group were also very likely to exhibit better control over their emotions, and were able to manage their state of mind better than the rest of the group, PsychCentral reports. The bright side of the research is that we can all learn to be resilient, since this is not an innate trait, but an acquired one.
“Some of the characteristics of being resilient can be worked on and improved, such as self-esteem and being able to regulate one’s emotions,” explains UAB research coordinator, Dr. Joaquin T. Limonero.
“Learning these techniques can offer people the resources needed to help them adapt and improve their quality of life,” the researcher goes on to say. He concludes that resilience can indeed be used as a positive prediction effect on the level of satisfaction people have with their lives.