You may not realize that when seasons change, so does your ability to achieve good sleep. There are physiological changes that take place. For example, as the days get lighter and longer, this affects the amount of melatonin in your body.

Less melatonin means less sleep. In the spring season, Daylight Savings Time can disrupt your sleep. The changing time can throw off your sleep schedule. You can also have trouble sleeping due to the allergies that this season often ushers in.

In the summer months, the light also causes sleep changes. A lot of people find that they develop insomnia when summer hits. That’s because, just like in spring, your melatonin levels are altered.

The amount that you have in your body lessens when it’s light out and this is what affects your circadian rhythm. In the fall and winter, there’s not as much sunlight and people aren’t outdoors as often.

This can cause drops in the amount of vitamin D your body has. Once this level drops, the body doesn’t have as much of the neurotransmitter responsible for producing melatonin.

If the vitamin D level drops low enough, it can even bring on SAD. It’s important that you get enough sleep. When you don’t, it impairs your immune system because sleep boosts your T cells.....

The changes that happen in your immune system in the seasons have a lot to do with how many UV rays you’re exposed to. In the summertime, it’s a lot easier to get access to UV light.

This is another reason why illness is less prevalent. When the days are warm and the weather is good, you’ll find more people outside. They’ll work out in the yard, and engage in outdoor activities like swimming.

More time is spent outdoor than inside. The exact opposite happens when winter hits. The majority of people want to stay inside where it’s warm. The overcast skies and chilly weather just don’t have the same pull that the warm, sunny days have.

But that’s exactly what the body needs. To be soaking up sun. When you have exposure to UV light, it works to help boost the body’s production of vitamin D. In turn, this vitamin is what works to aid the body in being able to process other helpful nutrients and vitamins.

Plus, it works as a warning to the body’s immune system when there’s an infection or viral invader. Sunlight boosts your T cells through your vitamin D. This is why your immune system is stronger in the summer months.

It’s also why you need to make sure you get or replicate that light in the winter as well as during the other times of the year. You can do this by planning outdoor activities regardless of the season...

When the winter chill sets in, you may have heard people talking about how they have more body aches and health issues. Certain health problems, such as arthritis, act up more in the winter months than in the warmer spring or summer ones.

That’s because when the seasons change, your immune system does too - at a cellular level. This can be particularly hard on certain diseases that are autoimmune in nature, but even someone who has no current health problems can find themselves struggling during seasonal changes.

That’s because the parts that make up the immune system are busier at different degrees when it’s the summer months versus when the season changes to winter. In the summer, these parts of the immune system work more aggressively in the way that they function.

This activity helps to squash reactive symptoms that stem from conditions such as arthritis as well as health issues such as the common cold. But when winter hits, the immune system doesn’t work as aggressively.

It’s much easier for an inflammation to hit and get the upper hand. This is why, when you’re exposed to an illness, you’re more likely to get it in the wintertime...

The Powerful On The Spot ABC Coping Strategy

Every day there will be events that happen that test our resilience capacity. You get stuck in traffic, wake up late and have to rush the school or whatever else life throws at you. How you react is crucial to building up your resilience.

Cognitive restructuring (or changing the way we think during a stressful event) is the best method for managing stress at work, according to a "meta-study" published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

 In this observation of studies, which focuses on techniques used to manage stress, cognitive restructuring was compared against other common "stress interventions" like deep breathing and relaxation.

The cognitive restructuring came out to be the best intervention of the lot. The findings suggested that "Cognitive restructuring promotes the development of proactive responses to stress." Put another way, it helps prevent stress.

Founded by Doctor Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, was this mindset reframing technique that gets people to dispute their negative self-talk and therefore use it to control their thinking during a stressful event.

What their research found is that most people the severity of a stressful event. Ellis liked to call this phenomenon: "stinking thinking." This way of thinking results in a common response like:

"I've got the worst job in the world."
"I'll never get all this work done on time."
"Why does this always happen to me."
"I'm a complete failure."

This negative thought process often clouds people's mindsets and leads to irrational and often completely false outcomes.

When we engage in this way of thinking, we are the ones who suffer. In essence, we become our own worst enemy for our often false recognition of the situation that's causing us to feel stressed. Ellis and Beck came up with a way to change our overly negative thinking that's as easy to remember as ABC or, in this case, A+B=C. 

Using The Wellness Wheel To Support Resilience.

One of the best ways to build on your resilience capacity is to audit your wellbeing often. Why? It will be even harder to pull through challenging times if important wellbeing areas are way outbalanced, then the struggle will be made even harder.

For example, if your eating habits and sleep habits are poor, your energy during the day will plummet – not what you want when you are building resilience. By paying more attention to these areas, you'll be to bring them back into balance and thus put yourself in a better position of resilient growth.

Using the wellness wheel which covers various dimensions of wellness makes it easy to identify which areas of your life need more attention while defining an action plan to improve them.

How the wellness wheel works

The core idea behind the wellness wheel is to assess the different areas of wellness that affect your wellbeing. These include the following:

*Physical health including your exercising, sleeping and eating habits.
*Mental health including your day to day mindset thoughts and emotions.
*Relationships in your life, in other words, to what extent do you feel you are connected to others.
*Recreational health. This would be assessing your downtime, including the time you get to practice your hobbies and interests.
*Financial health, including budgeting and saving money for the future.
*Occupation health. This is your current job and career prospects.
*Spiritual health. This is your personal growth and purpose in your life.
*Home health. This is the health of your home, including how safe you feel in it and how happy you are with it.

The eight areas above represent your life. Rank your level of satisfaction with each area out of 10. 1 means you are struggling and feel unfulfilled and unsatisfied in that area. 10 means you're satisfied and complete fulfilled with that area and don't think it needs much improvement. An example of what this might look like is below.....

How Resilient Are You? Take The Test

To work on your resilient levels, you first develop an understanding of how your resilience looks right now. Below is an abbreviated version of the Nicholson McBride Resilience Questionnaire (NMRQ).
For each question, score yourself between 1 and 5, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Be completely honest: understanding the specific areas in which you lack resilience will enable you to get the most out of our 10 point booster plan

Resilience Questionnaire Score

1. In a difficult spot, I turn at once to what can be done to put things right __
2. I influence where I can, rather than worrying about what I can't influence __
3. I don't take criticism personally __
4. I generally manage to keep things in perspective __
5. I am calm in a crisis __
6. I'm good at finding solutions to problems __
7. I wouldn't describe myself as an anxious person __
8. I don't tend to avoid conflict __
9. I try to control events rather than being a victim of circumstances __
10. I trust my intuition __
11. I manage my stress levels well __
12. I feel confident and secure in my position __

Add up your total score and take a look at the resilience categories below to which one you fall into.
0 – 37
A developing level of resilience. Your score indicates that, although you may not always feel at the mercy of events, you would benefit significantly from developing aspects of your behaviour.
38 - 43
An established level of resilience. Your score indicates that you may occasionally have tough days when you can't quite make things go your way, but you rarely feel ready to give up.
44- 48
A strong level of resilience. Your above-average score indicates that you are pretty good at rolling with the punches, and you have an impressive track record of turning setbacks into opportunities.
49 -60
An exceptional level of resilience. Your score indicates that you are very resilient most of the time and rarely fail to bounce back – whatever life throws at you. You believe in making your luck.
Benchmarking your resilience levels allows you to see how things look right now while providing a framework for improvement (if any) in the future. 

Resilience Starts With Values

If you wanted to lose weight, get fitter and stronger, you would probably go about doing the following:
•Join a gym
•Lift weights
•Walk more
•Cook more nutritious meals
•Rinse and repeat

As a result, over time, you would probably start to see definition in various body parts, more energy levels and better health markers all around. It doesn't happen overnight. However, you have to put in the work to see the benefits. Not only that, you have to keep putting in the work to keep those benefits.

Similarly, building mental resilience is no different. Just like you need to learn proper technique to exercise effectively in the gym, learning the "mental techniques" allows you to build your resilience capacity and mental strength.

 An important part of this is identifying your values. Previous research findings suggest that aligning with personal values helps people be more resilient in the face of stressful situations. For example, according to resilient school leaders, the process of "privately clarifying, publicly articulating, and consciously acting on" core values is a great source of strength in helping them face adversity and emerge stronger than before (Patterson and Kelleher, Resilient School Leaders. 2005, p. 51).

 Another study by Creswell and colleagues (2005) showed that reflecting on personal values buffered physiological and psychological stress responses during a laboratory stress challenge.
In essence, values provide a reason to keep going which is a cornerstone in becoming more resilient. For example, if "providing" and "safety" was an important value for you and you lost your job, it's easier to move quickly and seek out other jobs because you're aligning with your core values. The values themselves act as motivators.

Identifying values
Your values are the things that you consider to be important in life, such as leading, kindness, safety, freedom, helping others and so on. Let's start with a value affirmation task to align the values that are important to you and which you can harness during challenging periods in your life.

Step 1: Describe a stressful life event

Grab a piece of paper or pull out the notes app on your phone and take a moment to consider a challenging area in your life that is currently taking place. For example, you may have recently lost your job because of a pandemic or perhaps your partner has there is more pressure on you finanicially to provide for your family. Briefly, write down what this stressful life event is.

 Step 2: List reasons to come out the other side

Consider why it is worth it to you to keep going and get through this stressful, challenging period in your life. For example, getting through the challenge of losing a job and securing a new job may show your kids that overcoming adversity should be embraced, and therefore you have shown this by being a role model to them. They might see you as a "hero" as a result. Write down as many reasons as you can.

Stop Letting Fear Control Your Life

The number one thing that holds many people back from going after their dreams is fear. If left unchecked, our fears can keep us locked up inside of a mental prison we construct for ourselves or an even larger institution like society as whole. The trouble with confronting these fears head-on and coming to terms with them is that it's not easy; it will be uncomfortable at first-- but the reward you get in return far outweighs whatever discomfort comes before because if you really want your best life then this must be done!

Explore the cause of your fear

Fear is a natural human response. It's understandable for people to have fears, but it can be difficult when these feelings become overwhelming and often debilitating. Of course different things scare us all in our own way; some may fear heights or spiders while others might not know what scares them at all! No matter how big the thing that we're afraid of, there are always ways we can try to prevent this feeling from happening again- if you want stand any chance getting over your phobia then identifying its cause should be first on your list!

Practice mindfulness

If you are feeling stressed and anxious, the best thing to do is practice mindfulness. By focusing on your breath or some other object in nature for a set period of time each day, it can help bring that sense of calm into your mind. You will start feeling more relaxed which means less control over fear while practicing this technique. Mindfulness also helps us feel stronger and better able to face our fears when we have calmed down from anxiety attacks!

It's time to face your fears

If you are struggling to make changes in your life, it is important that you think about the consequences if things do not change. What will happen a year from now if nothing has changed? In all likelihood, you would still be stuck feeling dissatisfied with your life and unable to move forward. It’s almost like once we get comfortable enough doing something wrong there might as well just continue on our same path because of how difficult changing can seem at first glance - but don't let yourself fall trap back into this mindset

How Mindfulness Can Make You a Better Person

You’ve probably heard of something called mindfulness and how it can help improve several different aspects of your life. But did you know that mindfulness can even make you a better person? It’s true, mindfulness will not only have a positive impact on your own life, but it can also transform the way you see and treat others.

Mindfulness Increases Empathy

When you spend more time considering how you think and feel, this makes you a more empathetic person as you begin to learn more about how thoughts and feelings are connected. One study performed at California State University San Marcos found that people who received specific instruction in mindfulness practices were more empathetic when they noticed a stranger in need. And having empathy is an essential part of creating and maintaining meaningful, healthy relationships.

Mindfulness Increases Emotional Control

In the same study mentioned above, researchers also found that people introduced to mindfulness techniques remained in better control of their own emotions. This means they were less likely to burst into anger at someone else because of a small perceived mistake. Anger or other emotional outbursts can drive a wedge between people when it comes to relationships and friendships, mainly because humans tend to respond to the emotions of those around them. Therefore, if you are prone to emotional swings, so too will the people in your life. If you are better at controlling your own emotions, you will find people like to be around you more, and your relationships with others will improve.

Mindfulness Lowers Stress

Stress puts a significant strain on your body, both mentally and physically. When you feel the pressure of stress, you are much less likely to think of others in your life. When you take steps to be more mindful, this will help lower your pressure and make you feel better. And when you feel better, you can bet that treating others will come naturally without you even having to try.

When you embark on a more mindful lifestyle, you will transform how you perceive empathy and express emotions. This, combined with the lower levels of stress you will experience on your mindfulness journey, will help make you a better person. This is one reason why it is so essential to becoming more mindful in your own life today!

How Can I Be More Mindful?

Do you find yourself going through life with no idea what you are doing or how you got there? And then one day, you realize that you aren’t even where you want to be? This happens when you lead a life that isn’t mindful. Mindfulness is an awareness of where you are in life, and it is essential if you want to enjoy life truly. Below are a few things you can do to help yourself become more mindful.

Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself

Negative thoughts can often send you into a mental spiral in which you begin to see the world, or yourself, in a negative light. Instead of thinking of all the things you have done wrong in your life, block these thoughts with positive ones about all the good you have done, and then focus on being present in the here and now, rather than spending all your time on thoughts which may not be accurate.

Relax

A significant part of mindfulness is learning to relax. When you are relaxed, you become more present and mindful of your surroundings. If you are having trouble relaxing, it can help to simply pause what you are doing and take a few deep breaths. You may also want to work on relaxation further by pursuing a tactic like meditation or journaling, which you perform daily.

Stay Present

As mentioned above, if you spend most of your time in your thoughts, whether they are negative thoughts about yourself or worry about future events which haven’t happen yet, this detracts from you focusing on what is going on around you. And being present is truly what helps you lead a more mindful life. When you find yourself struggling to remain present, pause what you are doing, and check-in with yourself. Check-in with your thoughts. Where are they now? Are they focused on what is going on around you? Then check in with your body and take note of the sensations you feel, all the way down to your breathing and heart rate. This may seem dumb, but this is one of the best ways to help keep you present and mindful.

Conclusion

Becoming more mindful can be a difficult task that requires time and practice, so don’t be frustrated if it doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, just focus on not being too hard on yourself, relaxing, and staying present, and being more mindful will eventually come.