Introduction

Since the last decade of the 20th century, the world situation has been characterized by a noticeable increase in the number and scale of accidents, catastrophes and emergencies. In the prevention and elimination of natural (earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, etc.), man-made (accidents and disasters in industry and transport), biological and social (especially dangerous and widespread infectious diseases, epidemics, etc.), environmental and social - political (wars, civil unrest, terrorism, interethnic and interethnic conflicts) emergency situations, an important role is played not only by the activities of the units of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, but also by taking into account many socio-psychological factors.

In this regard, within the framework of psychology, great importance is given to the problem of psychological aspects that one way or another accompany emergency situations.

Psychological stability of the individual

Psychological stability is a complex and capacious personality quality. It combines a whole complex of abilities, a wide range of multi-level phenomena. The existence of a personality is diverse, which is reflected in different aspects of its psychological stability. Three aspects of resilience come to the fore:

• - durability, stability; balance, proportionality;
• - resistance (resistance).

Resilience refers to the ability to withstand difficulties, maintain faith in situations of frustration, and a constant (reasonably high) level of mood.

Balance is the proportionality of the strength of the response, the activity of behavior, the strength of the stimulus, the significance of the event (the magnitude of the positive or negative consequences to which it can lead). Resistance is the ability to resist what limits freedom of behavior and freedom of choice.

Persistence. Resilience is manifested in overcoming difficulties as the ability to maintain faith in oneself, to be confident in oneself, one’s capabilities, and as the ability for effective mental self-regulation. Stability is manifested in maintaining the individual’s ability to function, exercise self-government, develop, and adapt.

One of the sides of resilience is commitment to chosen ideals and goals. Resilience is possible if there is existential certainty. Existential certainty is the experience of having one's basic needs met. Existential uncertainty - lack of experience of satisfying one’s basic needs, dissatisfaction with self-realization, lack of meaning in life, lack of attractive life goals. For most people, the basic needs are for self-realization, self-expression, and self-affirmation. These needs are classified as higher needs. Not for all people these are the main, leading ones. For some people, basic needs are limited to vital needs, security needs, and the need to be accepted by other people.

Persistence also manifests itself in a constant, fairly high level of mood. The ability to maintain a constant level of mood and activity, to be responsive, sensitive to different aspects of life, to have diverse interests, and to avoid simplification in values, goals and aspirations is also an important component of psychological stability. Commitment to one value, one goal, service to one ideal can give a sense of existential certainty, but do not support the fullness of psychological stability. The reason here is that a person with such an existential decision builds a personality space that is very different from how it is built for most others. His personality includes accents that complicate interpersonal interaction and, thus, usually narrows the circle of people with whom emotionally rich relationships can be established. But the need for an emotionally warm relationship can rarely be compensated for by anything.

Stability, as a component of psychological stability, should not be understood as rigidity. For the psychological stability of an individual, the ability for self-development and the formation of one’s own individuality is necessary.

Stability presupposes a set of adaptation processes, the integration of the individual in the sense of maintaining the consistency of the basic functions of the individual and the stability of their implementation. Execution stability does not necessarily imply stability of the function structure, but rather its sufficient flexibility.

Of course, stability includes stability of functioning and reliability in professional activities. We will not touch upon issues of operational reliability. Let us only note that the level of psychological stability of an individual, one way or another, is manifested in his work activity, in the reliability of an employee, a professional. On the other hand, successful professional activity for many is the basis for a full-fledged experience of self-realization, which affects satisfaction with life in general, mood and psychological stability.

Reduced resilience leads to the fact that, once in a situation of risk (a situation of testing, a situation of loss, a situation of social deprivation), a person overcomes it with negative consequences for mental and somatic health, for personal development, for existing interpersonal relationships. Risk situations, individual behavior in them, issues of preventing negative consequences will be discussed in the third section of the book.

Equilibrium. Psychological stability should be considered as proportionality, a balance of constancy and variability of personality. We are talking about the constancy of the main life principles and goals, dominant motives, ways of behavior, and reactions in typical situations. Variability is manifested in the dynamics of motives, the emergence of new ways of behavior, the search for new ways of activity, and the development of new forms of response to situations. With this consideration, the basis of the psychological stability of the individual is the harmonious (proportional) unity of personality constancy and dynamism, which complement each other. The life path of an individual is built on the foundation of constancy; without it, it is impossible to achieve the goals of life. It supports and strengthens self-esteem, promotes acceptance of oneself as a person and individuality. The dynamism and adaptability of the individual are closely related to the very development and existence of the individual. Development is impossible without changes that occur in individual spheres of the personality and in the personality as a whole; they are caused by both internal dynamics and environmental influences. In fact, personality development is the totality of its changes.

Balance is the ability to balance the level of stress with the resources of your psyche and body. The level of tension is always determined not only by stressors and external circumstances, but also by their subjective interpretation and assessment. Balance, as a component of psychological stability, is manifested in the ability to minimize the negative impact of the subjective component in the occurrence of tension, in the ability to keep tension within acceptable limits. Balance is also the ability to avoid extremes in the strength of the response to events. That is, to be responsive, sensitive to different aspects of life, caring, on the one hand, and not to react too strongly, with increased excitability, on the other.

Another aspect is important in psychological stability - the proportionality of pleasant and unpleasant feelings, merging in a sensual tone, the proportionality between feelings of satisfaction, well-being and experiences of joy, happiness, on the one hand, and feelings of dissatisfaction with what has been achieved, imperfection in business, in oneself, feelings of sadness and sadness, suffering - on the other. Without both, it is hardly possible to feel the fullness of life, its meaningful fulfillment.

Reduced stamina and balance lead to the emergence of risk states (states of stress, frustration, pre-neurasthenic, subdepressive states). Risk states, dynamics and manifestations of these states, issues of preventing risk states and preventing their negative consequences will be discussed in the third section of the book.

Resistance. Resistance is the ability to resist what limits freedom of behavior, freedom of choice, both in individual decisions and in choosing a lifestyle in general. The most important aspect of resistance is individual and personal self-sufficiency in the aspect of freedom from dependence (chemical, interactional, accentuated unidirectional behavioral activity).

Finally, one cannot fail to note constant interpersonal interaction, involvement in many social connections, openness to influence, on the one hand, and, on the other, resistance to excessively strong interaction. The latter can disrupt the necessary personal autonomy, independence in choosing a form of behavior, goals and style of activity, lifestyle, and will prevent you from hearing your Self, following your direction, building your life path. In other words, psychological resilience includes the ability to find a balance between conformity and autonomy and maintain this balance. Psychological resilience requires the ability to withstand external influences while following your intentions and goals.

Thus, psychological stability is a personality quality, individual aspects of which are stamina, balance, and resistance. It allows an individual to withstand life’s difficulties, unfavorable pressure from circumstances, and maintain health and performance in various trials.

Psychological stability is the process of maintaining the most optimal mode of operation of the human psyche in conditions of constantly changing circumstances and their stressful impact on the individual.

Psychological stability as a personality trait is formed in a person throughout his entire development and is not genetically determined. Therefore, some people react instantly to stress and succumb to the influence of negative emotions: they worry, worry, get nervous, become depressed and upset.

And other people, finding themselves in similar stressful situations, seem to have been ready for a long time for the development of events: they take everything easily and do not tense up, maintain composure, and remain more or less calm. The whole secret lies in the individual level of neuropsychological stability of people.

The level of psychological stability of an individual depends on such factors as a person’s healthy nervous system, methods of his upbringing, life experience, level of personal development, etc.

Nervous and psychological stability is characterized by the flexibility and mobility of the human psyche in constantly changing conditions.

Psychological stability works something like this: first, a task appears that generates a motive that entails the performance of certain actions aimed at its implementation. Then all the difficulties that cause negative emotions are realized.

The psyche begins to look for ways to overcome these difficulties, as a result of which the level of negative emotions decreases and mental state improves.

With psychological instability of the psyche, a chaotic search for a way to overcome perceived difficulties occurs, causing their aggravation, as a result of which there is an increase in the level of negative emotions and a deterioration in the mental state.

It is not difficult to understand that the main reason for exposure to stressful conditions is the lack of effective ways to overcome difficult situations and a feeling of personal threat, a feeling of complete helplessness in relation to difficult situations and one’s own behavior. Thus, psychological stability is, first of all, self-control and self-control in critical circumstances.

It is also important to remember that stressful situations can never be completely eliminated from life, because... they are its full component. And the goal of any person should not be to get rid of these situations, but to develop psychological resistance to them.

The most basic way to increase psychological stability is to systematically unload the nervous system. A person becomes irritable, nervous, tired if he does not alternate work with rest or does not know how to fully rest. Healthy sleep, active recreation in the fresh air, and engaging in your favorite hobbies will put your nervous system in order.

The increase in psychological stability is directly influenced by the conditions in which the individual lives.

A person with a reactive type of nervous system likes an intense lifestyle, frequent changes of environment, and activity. Such a person will not be comfortable sitting in one place without the opportunity to splash out his energy. In order for the psyche to be more stable, it is necessary that a person’s lifestyle corresponds to his natural predispositions.

Increasing psychological stability is greatly influenced by a person’s cultivation of a philosophical attitude towards life.

Accept the fact that we cannot change some circumstances, situations in life happen and that’s it. And if a person is not able to change circumstances, then he can only change his attitude towards them.

You need to learn to perceive difficult situations not as something that happens to your personal detriment, but as something that simply takes place.

As soon as a person allows events to take their course, without focusing their attention on them and without reacting emotionally, they pass easier and faster. Learn to perceive everything that happens neutrally, especially if it concerns difficult situations.

A person’s mental health is closely interconnected with such personality traits as humor, positive thinking, self-irony and self-criticism.

To develop psychological stability, it is very important to maintain a positive image of yourself and cultivate a positive attitude towards your personality, to accept yourself as you are. Develop the integrity of your personality, live in harmony with yourself, your principles, beliefs and worldview. Strive for self-development and spiritual self-improvement. This all has a direct constructive effect on increasing psychological resilience.

Factors that influence increasing psychological resilience:

Social environment and immediate surroundings
Self-esteem and attitude towards oneself
Self-realization and self-expression
Independence and self-sufficiency
The correspondence between how you see yourself and who you really are
Faith and spirituality
Having positive emotions
Awareness of your meaning in life, determination, self-acceptance, etc. and so on.

Psychological stability can give any person a state of satisfaction with life and a sense of harmony, normalize the psyche and increase performance, give new incentives, peace of mind and the ability to become a whole and strong person.

Many people, when faced with difficult challenges, believe that they are not strong enough to cope with them. You can often hear from them: “Of course, she overcame it, she is strong, but I can’t do that.” In fact, the belief that someone is born with high psychological stability is incorrect. People who confidently cope with failures, painful breakups and other blows of fate were not born with an indomitable character and a will of steel - they became that way. And each of us can do this.

Psychologists define psychological resilience as the ability to recover from setbacks and easily adapt to change. This quality can and should be developed, and 15 steps will help you with this.

1. Maintain healthy relationships

It doesn’t matter who it will be - family members, friends or acquaintances from the support group you contacted with your problem. It is important that communication is built on mutual trust, care and desire to help each other. Discussing problems helps us understand that we will not be left alone with difficulties and that other people have also experienced or are experiencing something similar right now.

When we know we can lean on our loved ones, it creates a feeling of security and our level of psychological resilience increases.

2. Face life's challenges head on

Don't deny what's happening. Day by day, step by step, do what you can to cope with difficulties.

3. Believe the problem can be solved

We can't control everything, but we can definitely control our reactions. Praise yourself for the steps you take to overcome a challenge or crisis. Believe that you can handle the problem. Remind yourself of past victories - probably something unpleasant has already happened in life that you were able to cope with.

See yourself as a problem solver. Let difficult times be an opportunity to prove it to yourself.

4. Develop problem-solving skills and work toward your goals.

Don't let problems that seem insurmountable at first glance prevent you from moving forward. Think about what you can do right now to start dealing with the situation. Make a list of options, but don't try to find the perfect solution that will satisfy all the criteria, just generate ideas.

When you complete the list, describe each item in a little more detail: what exactly will you do in this case, where will you start, what consequences are possible. Choose the most realistic option and start working on it. If it doesn't work, choose another one. This approach may seem trivial, but the effectiveness will surprise you.

5. Take action

Instead of hesitating or procrastinating, take a step forward. Divide the plan into small steps so that it does not seem complicated and impossible. Start small. Don't get hung up on worries about tomorrow, live now. See yourself not as a victim, but as a fighter - persistent and unbending.

6. Accept change as part of life.

As time passes, some of the dreams and plans we cherished may become impossible to achieve. It hurts to admit it. But instead of regretting what didn’t happen, it’s better to focus your energy on what else you can do now or in the future.

“When one door closes, another opens. But we look at the closed door for so long and with such regret that we do not notice the one that opened,” these words of Alexander Graham Bell perfectly suit this situation. Train your flexibility and ability to see events in a new light.

7. Accept negative emotions

No one was promised at birth that life would always be easy and pleasant. Allow yourself to experience the full range of emotions. One of the signs of high psychological stability is the ability to empathize with oneself, to accept moments of sadness, anger, fear and anxiety. These emotions are natural. We don’t need to get hung up on them, but we shouldn’t deny them either: by living them, we learn to adapt to life.

8. Maintain an internal locus of control

People with high mental toughness believe in the importance of what they do. They take responsibility for actions and their consequences. People with an external locus of control, on the contrary, blame others or circumstances for their failures.

This approach to life is depressing, disappointing and burdensome. Every choice affects the course of events, so it's time to take responsibility.

9. Think about how wrestling will help you.

Overcoming difficulties, we develop and grow. Situations affect different personality traits: some teach self-compassion, others teach efficiency. Perhaps as a result, you have learned to be more grateful for life? Ask: “What is the situation teaching me?”

Even if it seems impossible now, perhaps in the future you will be grateful for who you became through overcoming difficulties.

10. Put problems into perspective

React to difficult situations appropriately: if you feel that a minor problem seems catastrophic, try to look at the situation differently. Ask yourself: “Will this be important to me in five years?” Unnecessary worries can knock you down and undermine your ability to solve problems.

Strive for an optimistic and realistic point of view. Instead of the darkest scenario, imagine the most favorable one. Being an optimist does not mean ignoring problems or taking them lightly. It means having faith that everything will work out well in the end.

12. Take care of yourself

Getting through difficult times is easier if you are physically and emotionally fit. Healthy eating, sleep, sports and relaxation are recommended by a variety of experts for a reason. Some people help cope with stress through meditation or prayer, others - playing with pets, walking in nature or an evening in the company of friends. Do what makes you happy and helps you relax.

13. Find a balance between outside help and your own resources

There is nothing wrong with asking for help in difficult times. But relying entirely on others and becoming dependent on them prevents us from learning to cope with problems.

14. Say no to self-destruction

Alcohol, drugs, gambling, and overeating do not help solve problems. By resorting to these means, we only briefly pretend that there are no problems. In fact, difficulties will not only remain, but will also worsen - addiction, health and money problems will be added to them. And then there will be less strength to overcome difficult situations.

15. Set short and long term goals

If you fill each day with meaning, it will be easier for you to overcome difficulties. In some cases, you will even be able to use your experience to help other people in difficult situations.

To develop psychological stability, you will have to work on yourself and change many habits. But only difficulties make you stronger.

about the author

Psychotherapist, works at the University of California, Los Angeles. More details on her website.

The concept of “psychological stability”. The word “stable” in many languages ​​of the world means “stable, resistant, solid, durable, strong.” The “Dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian Language” gives two synonyms for this word: “stability, balance.”

The term stability is translated as: 1) stability, stability, state of equilibrium; 2) constancy, firmness; and mental stability is mental stability (stability) [English-Russian Dictionary of Psychology, 1998].

In A. Reber’s dictionary, “stable” is understood as a characteristic of an individual whose behavior is relatively reliable and consistent. Its antonym is the term “unstable,” which has several meanings in psychology. The two main ones are: 1) “unstable” is an individual who exhibits erratic and unpredictable patterns of behavior and mood; 2) “unstable” is an individual who is prone to demonstrate neurotic, psychotic, or simply dangerous behavior patterns for others. In the second meaning, the term is used as a kind of informal psychiatric diagnosis.

“Stable” in this dictionary is explained as a trait (in personality theories) characterized by the absence of excessive emotional changes. In this case, the qualifying word “emotional” (stability) is often used. In English, German, French and Spanish, the word “sustainability” is synonymous with the word “stability”.

Aspects of psychological resilience. Psychological stability is a complex and capacious personality quality. It combines a whole complex of abilities, a wide range of multi-level phenomena. The existence of a personality is diverse, which is reflected in different aspects of its psychological stability. Three aspects of resilience come to the fore:

durability, stability;

balance, proportionality;

resistance (resistance).

Resilience refers to the ability to withstand difficulties, maintain faith in situations of frustration, and a constant (sufficiently high) level of mood. Balance is the proportionality of the strength of the response, the activity of behavior, the strength of the stimulus, the significance of the event (the magnitude of the positive or negative consequences to which it can lead). Resistance is the ability to resist what limits freedom of behavior, freedom of choice.

Persistence. Resilience is manifested in overcoming difficulties as the ability to maintain faith in oneself, to be confident in oneself, one’s capabilities, and as the ability for effective mental self-regulation. Stability is manifested in maintaining the individual’s ability to function, exercise self-government, develop, and adapt.

One of the sides of resilience is commitment to chosen ideals and goals. Resilience is possible if there is existential certainty. Existential certainty is the experience of satisfaction of one's basic needs. Existential uncertainty - lack of experience of satisfying one’s basic needs, dissatisfaction with self-realization, lack of meaning in life, lack of attractive life goals. For most people, the basic needs are for self-realization, self-expression, and self-affirmation. These needs are classified as higher needs. Not for all people these are the main, leading ones. For some people, basic needs are limited to vital needs, security needs, and the need to be accepted by other people.

Persistence also manifests itself in a constant, fairly high level of mood. The ability to maintain a constant level of mood and activity, to be responsive, sensitive to different aspects of life, to have diverse interests, and to avoid simplicity in values, goals and aspirations is also an important component of psychological stability. Commitment to one value, one goal, service to one ideal can give a sense of existential certainty, but do not support the fullness of psychological stability. The reason here is that a person with such an existential decision builds a personality space that is very different from how it is built for most others. His personality includes accents that complicate interpersonal interaction and, thus, usually narrows the circle of people with whom emotionally rich relationships can be established. But the need for an emotionally warm relationship can rarely be compensated for by anything.

Stability, as a component of psychological stability, should not be understood as rigidity. For the psychological stability of an individual, the ability for self-development and the formation of one’s own individuality is necessary. L. N. Tolstoy has these words:

It seems to us that real work is work on something external - to produce, to collect something: property, a house, livestock, fruits, but to work on one’s soul is so, a fantasy, and yet anything other than work over your soul, mastering the habits of goodness, all other work is trifles (Diary. 1899, June 28).

Stability presupposes a set of adaptation processes, the integration of the individual in the sense of maintaining the consistency of the basic functions of the individual and the stability of their implementation. Execution stability does not necessarily imply stability of the function structure, but rather presupposes its sufficient flexibility.

Of course, stability includes stability of functioning and reliability in professional activities. We will not touch upon issues of operational reliability. They have been studied quite deeply and described by G. S. Nikiforov. Let us only note that the level of psychological stability of an individual, one way or another, is manifested in his work activity, in the reliability of a worker, a professional. On the other hand, successful professional activity for many is the basis for a full-fledged experience of self-realization, which affects satisfaction with life in general, mood and psychological stability.

Reduced resilience leads to the fact that, once in a situation of risk (a situation of testing, a situation of loss, a situation of social deprivation...) a person overcomes it with negative consequences for mental and somatic health, for personal development, for existing interpersonal relationships. Risk situations, individual behavior in them, issues of preventing negative consequences will be discussed in the third section of the book.

Equilibrium. Psychological stability should be considered as proportionality, balance of constancy and variability of personality. We are talking about the constancy of the main life principles and goals, dominant motives, ways of behavior, and reactions in typical situations. Variability is manifested in the dynamics of motives, the emergence of new ways of behavior, the search for new ways of activity, and the development of new forms of response to situations. With this consideration, the basis of the psychological stability of the individual is the harmonious (proportional) unity of personality constancy and dynamism, which complement each other. The life path of an individual is built on the foundation of constancy; without it it is impossible to achieve the goals of life. It supports and strengthens self-esteem, promotes acceptance of oneself as a person and individuality. The dynamism and adaptability of the personality are closely related to the very development and existence of the personality. Development is impossible without changes that occur in individual spheres of the personality and in the personality as a whole; they are caused by both internal dynamics and environmental influences. In fact, personality development is the totality of its changes.

Balance is the ability to balance the level of stress with the resources of your psyche and body. The level of tension is always determined not only by stressors and external circumstances, but also by their subjective interpretation and assessment. Balance, as a component of psychological stability, is manifested in the ability to minimize the negative impact of the subjective component in the occurrence of tension, in the ability to keep tension within acceptable limits. Balance is also the ability to avoid extremes in the strength of the response to events. That is, to be responsive, sensitive to different aspects of life, caring, on the one hand, and not to react too strongly, with increased excitability, on the other.

Another aspect is important in psychological stability - the proportionality of pleasant and unpleasant feelings, merging in a sensual tone, the proportionality between feelings of satisfaction, well-being and experiences of joy, happiness, on the one hand, and feelings of dissatisfaction with what has been achieved, imperfection in business, in oneself, feelings sadness and sadness, suffering - on the other. Without both, it is hardly possible to feel the fullness of life, its meaningful fulfillment.

Reduced stamina and balance lead to risk states (states of stress, frustration, pre-neurasthenic, subdepressive states). Risk states, dynamics and manifestations of these states, issues of preventing risk states and preventing their negative consequences will be discussed in the third section of the book.

Resistance. Resistance is the ability to resist what limits freedom of behavior, freedom of choice, both in individual decisions and in choosing a lifestyle in general. The most important aspect of resistance is individual and personal self-sufficiency in the aspect of freedom from dependence (chemical, interactional, accentuated unidirectional behavioral activity).

Finally, one cannot fail to note the constant interpersonal interaction, involvement in many social connections, openness to influence, on the one hand, and, on the other, resistance to excessively strong interaction. The latter can disrupt the necessary personal autonomy, independence in choosing a form of behavior, goals and style of activity, lifestyle, and will prevent you from hearing your Self, following your direction, building your life path. In other words, psychological resilience includes the ability to find a balance between conformity and autonomy and maintain this balance. Psychological stability requires the ability to resist external influences, following one’s intentions and goals (Petrovsky, 1975).

Thus, psychological stability is a personality quality, individual aspects of which are stamina, poise, and resistance. It allows the individual to withstand life’s difficulties, the unfavorable pressure of circumstances, and maintain health and performance in various trials.

A philosophical (sometimes ironic) attitude towards difficult situations can be the subject of a thorough discussion, but it is unlikely to be appropriate here. Let us refer to the authority of G. Allport, who stated:

...I am convinced that mental health contains a paradoxical relationship between the seriousness of life orientation and humor. Many of life's complicated circumstances are completely hopeless, and we have no weapon against them except laughter. I would venture to say that a person cannot be considered mentally healthy if he is not able to laugh at himself, noting where he miscalculated, where his claims were too exaggerated or unjustified. He must notice where he was deceived, where he was too self-confident, short-sighted, and, above all, where he was vain. The best cure for vanity, as Bergson said, is laughter, and in general, vanity is a ridiculous weakness [Allport, 1998, p. 111].

Further in this chapter, the supports (foundations) of the psychological stability of the individual will be considered. To these we include the dominants of faith and personal activity. When we talk about dominants, we mean the dominants of consciousness and activity of the individual. The focus of consciousness on one side or another of life largely determines its content, makes some thoughts, images and experiences dominant and eliminates or puts others into the shadows. The main dominants in the aspect of psychological stability of the individual are faith and one or more types of activity (cognitive, active, communicative).

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One of the most characteristic features of modern life is nothing more than an increased impact on a person of stressful situations. They, lurking, wait for him in any area of ​​life and are always expressed differently. This could be a misunderstanding in the family, a delay in salary, a conflict with a negative salesperson in a store, a broken contract with a business partner, or some other trouble. But sometimes this is not what surprises us at all, but the fact that when they find themselves in such situations, some people instantly succumb to the influence of emotions: they resonate with a stressful situation, worry, get nervous, their mood deteriorates, etc. And others, finding themselves in similar (and even worse) conditions, seem to have long been prepared for such a development of events: they perceive everything easily and do not strain, maintain composure, and remain, if not in a positive, then at least in a neutral state. What is the difference between the two? Today we will talk about one of the psychological characteristics of a person – resilience.

Psychological stability

Psychological stability is the process of maintaining the most optimal mode of operation of the human psyche in conditions of constantly changing circumstances and their stressful effects. The interesting thing is that this is formed in a person during his development and is not genetically determined. It depends on factors such as a person’s nervous system, his upbringing, experience, level of development, etc. This means that, for example, if a person, as they say, “has been through a lot,” then his psyche will be much more stable than the psyche of someone who grew up “holding onto his mother’s skirt.” But this is not the final indicator yet, because a person who is constantly exposed to stressful influences will react painfully to every problem, because his nerves have become quite frayed over time. These are two sides of the same coin.

In addition, psychological stability is not a 100% guarantee of resistance to everything. Psychological stability is more the flexibility of a person’s psyche than the steadfastness and stability of his nervous system. And the fundamental characteristic of psychological stability is precisely the mobility of the psyche in constantly changing conditions. Psychological stability, just like instability, always “works” according to a pattern.

How psychological stability/instability works

Psychological stability: First, a task appears that generates a motive that entails the performance of certain actions aimed at its implementation. Then the difficulty that causes the negative emotional state is realized. Afterwards, a search for a way to overcome this difficulty occurs, as a result of which the level of negative emotions decreases and the mental state improves.

Psychological instability: First, a task appears that generates a motive that entails the performance of certain actions aimed at its implementation. Then the difficulty that causes the negative emotional state is realized. Then there is a chaotic search for a way to overcome this difficulty, causing it to worsen, resulting in an increase in the level of negative emotions and a deterioration in mental state.

The main reasons for exposure to stressful conditions are the lack of effective ways to overcome difficult situations and the feeling of personal threat. Mentally unstable people often have this feature: chaotic behavior causes a stressful state and intensifies it, and this state, in turn, brings even more chaos into the person’s inner world, resulting in a feeling of complete helplessness in relation to difficult situations and one’s own behavior. Thus, the conclusion suggests itself that psychological stability is, first of all, self-control.

It is also important to remember that stressful situations can never be completely eliminated from life, because... they are its full component. And the goal of any person should not be to get rid of these situations, but to educate and cultivate psychological resistance to them.

Increasing psychological resilience

The main law of increasing psychological stability is the acceptance of the fact that if a person is not able to change circumstances, then he is able to change his attitude towards them. An example would be the situation with a barking dog: walking down the street and seeing a dog barking at someone nearby, you are unlikely to get annoyed about this, but simply calmly continue your way, immersed in your thoughts, right? It’s the same with difficult situations: they should be perceived not as something that happens to the detriment of you personally, but as something that simply takes place. As soon as a person allows events to take their course, without focusing their attention on them and without reacting emotionally, they pass just like that - in their own way; pass you by. If a person begins to “cling” to everything, then this also begins to “cling” to him. If you run to yell and insult a barking dog in every possible way, the likelihood that you will become the object of its close attention increases significantly. Of course, this is just one way. And it is not universal.

Increasing psychological stability is directly influenced by the conditions in which a person lives. For example, if a person by nature has a reactive type of nervous activity, i.e. he likes an intense lifestyle, frequent changes of environment, increased activity, etc., then, most likely, he will not be comfortable living in a small town or sitting in one place in the office without the opportunity to splash out his energy. In order for a person’s psyche to be more stable, it is necessary that his lifestyle correspond to his natural predispositions.

Systematic unloading of the nervous system is another way to increase your psychological stability. Constant pressure and doing something you don’t really love (which, by the way, is a striking feature of many people’s work) have an extremely negative impact on the human psyche. This makes him irritable, nervous, and constantly tired. Only proper rest can affect this. You need to regularly devote time to doing your favorite things, traveling outside the city, relaxing reading books, in general, doing everything that you really want to do. Or you can do nothing at all - just relax and relieve stress.

A person’s cultivation of a philosophical attitude towards life has a very good effect on psychological stability. A person’s mental health is closely interconnected with such personality traits as humor, positive thinking, the ability to laugh at oneself, and self-criticism. Only if a person can look at the events that are happening and at himself without excessive seriousness, without considering himself the “center of the Universe” and the one to whom life or someone else owes something, only then everything that happens will not seem so painful and will stop constantly touch a nerve.

Another effective method for building psychological resilience is a positive self-image. What is meant here is that a person must cultivate a positive attitude towards his personality, accept himself as he is, and be a positive and positive character for himself. But you need to be careful not to cross the line, which leads to self-pity and perception of the world with, otherwise psychological instability will only worsen.

In close proximity to a positive self-image is a person’s inner integrity. This question is worthy of writing a separate book, but, in short, a person must, firstly, live in harmony with himself, his principles, beliefs and worldview. Secondly, he should do what he likes: work, sports, recreation, communication - everything should be in maximum accordance with the person’s vision. Thirdly, he must strive for self-development and spiritual self-improvement, because this has a direct constructive impact on both a person’s personality and his life.

If we ask ourselves about the formation of psychological stability in more detail, we can note that a person should pay attention to the following components of his life:

• Social environment and immediate surroundings
• Self-esteem and attitude towards oneself
• Self-realization and self-expression
• Independence and self-sufficiency
• Correspondence between the present self and the desired self
• Faith and spirituality
• Having positive emotions
• Having meaning in life and determination, etc. and so on.

Naturally, only a part of those factors that have a positive effect on psychological stability are listed here. The presence and development of them in the life of any person will have a huge impact on his worldview, behavior, development, activity, mental state and mood. Their absence, on the contrary, has the opposite effect and contributes to psychological instability.

Of course, in order to learn to support all this, you need to purposefully activate every structure of your personality and always remember your goal - the development of psychological stability. However, despite the apparent complexity of this process, it has invaluable practical significance, because It is psychological stability that can give any person a state of satisfaction with life and a sense of harmony, normalize the psyche and increase performance, give new incentives, peace of mind and the ability to become a whole and strong person.

Write in the comments about how you improve your mental toughness, what helps you stay positive, and what you do when everything seems to be going wrong. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this!