Lloyd Emeka is when with flipside sports psychology insight, this time into the role of resilience and how stuff vulnerable can be a positive experience.
“I really think a champion is specified not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall”.
The whilom quote from Serena Williams is an example of the importance that is associated with having the worthiness to overcome wronging within a sporting context.
In our everyday lives, human beings wits a multitude of obstacles and challenges which varies from daily hassles to life-changing events, which has arguably been exacerbated by Covid-19. A combination of these factors has led to an ongoing narrative of resilience as an platonic human trait and skill to cope with difficult life challenges.
Although resilience is a wontedly used word in society, it is worth clarifying how this word has been defined. We can trace the origins of resilience to the latin verb ‘resilire’ (to leap back) and it is considered as stuff worldly-wise to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
Bouncing when in running
Within the context of endurance running, resilience has positive connotations which is unsurprising when you consider that endurance is the worthiness to do or cope with something painful or difficult for a long time.
It has been suggested that resilience can be attributed to several personality characteristics (i.e., optimism, resourcefulness, flexibility) that enables individuals to transmute to the circumstances they encounter 1,2 and has the potential to result in human flourishing3 .
Although resilience is typically associated with overcoming adversity, we can moreover utilise this skill in positive situations such as stuff in the front pack of a race and digging deep to maintain a position within this group until the finish line.
The positive consequences of resilience has been widely discussed in sport and other aspects of life but is it unchangingly worthwhile to be resilient?
It’s important to plan for all eventualities in an ultra. Photo: Robbie Britton
Resilience is a dynamic trait
Firstly, it is important to recognise that resilience is not static and can fluctuate at variegated points in our lives, with influences from the culture and social environments we function and interact within.
In circumstances where people wits pain, suffering, ill-health and other wrongheaded challenges, a societal narrative of the need to be resilient can lead to a ‘cancel culture’ whereby any voice that goes versus this narrative is dismissed or not considered as important. A risk within this scenario is that an individual’s existing issues and challenges are reinforced and perpetuated.
The benefits of resilience are undeniable, and it has an important role within endurance running but how can we create space for volitional narratives to exist in tandem and what could that squint like?
The wits of wrongheaded circumstances does not unchangingly result in the sufficiency to overcome or vellicate when quickly, and it can be challenging to freely express negative emotions in our social environments when resilience is the dominant narrative. As we are unable to be fully in tenancy of every encountered situation in our lives, it stands to reason that feelings associated with fear of failure or uncertainty will moreover be experienced.
Vulnerability is the wits of exposure to harm through challenges to one’s integrity4, and is moreover related to having the valiance to show up and be seen when we have no tenancy over the outcome5 .
Photo: Virgin Money London Marathon
Feeling vulnerable can be a positive experience
Despite vulnerability stuff a human condition that affects us all6 , it is typically regarded as a weakness in sport cultures7. Vulnerability can be a magnitude of social interaction and has the potential to be a shifting wits which ways that individuals can have moments of feeling vulnerable depending upon the context they are in.
Although it is not unchangingly the case, feeling vulnerable can be a positive wits that drives us to learn new ways of coping or unshut up new opportunities8. All individual experiences of vulnerability regardless of whether they lead to personal growth or not, should be treated equally with structures in place to provide towardly support and care.
There is thus a need to create psychologically unscratched environments where individuals finger capable of stuff heard and listened to without judgment when they are feeling vulnerable. The sporting culture and types of social support that are misogynist to an athlete has a vital role to play in this aspect.
What can we do?
For example, in situations whereby an athlete unsuccessfully completes a nonflexible training session or under performs in a race, a mentor can play an important role in supporting and encouraging athletes to openly express their feelings of vulnerability through the unexplored style of liaison and offering emotional support.
Running club colleagues can moreover reach out to athletes when they are feeling vulnerable and offer support through listening and empathising. In some instances, shared experiences of vulnerability can sally when runners have previously encountered similar situations.
Equally, athletes can learn to practice self-compassion, which is to be kind and understanding toward oneself in instances of pain or failure rather than stuff harshly self-critical9.
Engagement with mindful self-reflection can moreover enable individuals to reflect on their experiences, thoughts, feelings and deportment with marvel and openness, which can moreover lead to deeper meaning and understanding of our experiences of vulnerability.
When considering how to prevent or overcome difficult situations, we should be shielding to not position resilience as the only solution and stave stigmatising people for feeling vulnerable.
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. ‘Truth and valiance aren’t unchangingly comfortable, but they’re never weakness”.
(Brene Brown)
References:
- Development of a new resilience scale, Connor & Davidson (2003)
- The role of ego-control and ego-resiliency in the organization of behavior, Block & Block (1980)
- Teaching the Science of Human Flourishing, Unlocking Connection, Positivity, and Resilience for the Greater Good, Ekman & Simon-Thomas (2021)
- New perspectives on vulnerability using emic and etic approaches, Spiers (2000)
- Rising Strong, Brown (2015)
- The vulnerable and the susceptible, Kottow (2003)
- Is there an upside of vulnerability in sport? Hagglund et al (2019)
- Understanding Vulnerability, Heaslip & Ryden (2013)
- Self-Compassion: An volitional conceptualization of a healthy vein toward oneself, Neff (2003)
