Resilience: What's the buzz?
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What does resilience mean and why is it more important during the COVID‑19 pandemic?
This is an ABC podcast.
Hi, it's All in the Mind on RN. I'm Lynn Malcolm. This is a bittersweet moment for me and I'm feeling quite sad and unsettled. After a wonderful nine years hosting All in the Mind and many years in the ABC, I'm leaving the organisation. Whilst busily holding back the tears and making my last programmes, I've been reflecting on how we all cope with changes and challenges in our lives and how our sense of ourselves is influenced by what happens around us. This has become even more relevant for us in recent times as we live through the COVID nineteen pandemic. So today we take a look at resilience and the skills that help us to cope and flourish through life's changes.
We define resilience as a process of positive adaptation to some sort of adversity or stressful life event. So it could be their genes, their environment, but also the coping mechanisms and the way they deal with the particular stressor that they're dealing with, but also external to them. So the things like their social support networks and the access. to community support or financial support, whatever is needed to deal with that particular stressor.
And we'll hear how a successful Olympic athlete overcame her many physical and personal hurdles to flourish in her dream job as a medical doctor.
There was just lots of little things. So, you know, I certainly had some things happen to me in my teenage years from an assault perspective that weren't great and and I've had to overcome and then, you know, just a very difficult marriage which broke down for for both of our sakes in the end was probably a good thing. And the media definitely was hard. I am someone who loves to be liked. You know, seeing some of the negative press on the media, you know, cut me to the soul. Uh that was tough and then obviously m my marriage breaking down and then I lost a couple of babies as well through miscarriage and things like that. So it's just little life things that everybody goes through. Um and obviously I didn't even touch on one of the big ones, which was I never won the Olympic Games.
So if you set out to To achieve something Um, you know, it might be that you want a a new job at work and you're desperate for that promotion and you and you deserve it but you just don't quite get it. It's it hurts. And I trained every day, hours a day, busting my guts, vomiting most days a week, pushing myself beyond human limits to try and win the Olympics. Um, I won everything else, all Commonwealth, World titles, everything you can imagine. And then the only one that I really wanted never came to fruition. So I think It's funny because I used to that used to really hurt, whereas now I've achieved my ultimate goal in medicine. I don't it doesn't bother me as much. But certainly and around the time I wrote that book, it still haunted me considerably.
Jana Pittman, author of her autobiography Just Another Hurdle, and more from Jana later. Dr. Justine Gatt is a senior scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia and the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales. Her earlier work focused on ways to prevent depression and anxiety. But then she thought it better to take a different approach towards understanding well-being.
So what I instead now focus on is those people who are doing really well and flourishing and understanding despite some sort of trauma exposure, why are they doing really well. And if we can understand that, then maybe we can transfer those kind of skills to people who are more vulnerable.
And she says that resilience is probably more important than ever right now in this time of the COVID pandemic.
You know, this has really tested all of our coping mechanisms, hasn't it? And I don't think this will be the last event either. You know, the natural disasters are just happening more regularly. We've got unemployment to deal with. And there's also all the other types of adversities that we are all constantly dealing with, like childhood trauma and all the other life events that we need to deal with as an adult.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does resilience mean and why is it more important during the COVID‑19 pandemic?
0:02–5:53
2
How do genetics, environment and social support shape a person’s ability to adapt to stress?
5:53–11:40
3
What challenges did Olympic champion Jana Pittman face when transitioning from sport to medicine?
11:40–17:16
4
How does the Australian Twin E study use twins to separate genetic and environmental influences on well‑being?
17:16–22:37
5
What practical strategies (self‑compassion, positive reminiscence, kindness) improve everyday resilience?
22:37–27:40
6
How can people navigate major life transitions, like leaving a long‑time career, without losing their sense of identity?
27:40–31:43
7
What role does mastering new skills (e.g., conversation training) play in building confidence during change?
31:43–36:53
8
What key take‑aways does the episode offer for listeners wanting to strengthen their resilience now and in the future?
36:53–41:56