From Resistance to Resilience
- Julie Peterson
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Thriving in a Threatened Natural World
Stress and anxiety are common conditions in the world population, international mental health data show.
While the exact sources of stress differ around the world, real and perceived dangers—including from weather-related events—can make people feel uneasy and fearful over what the future might hold.
One of the best ways to combat fear and dis-ease is to cultivate resilience in oneself. To many scholars, this means shifting emphasis from “fight or flight” responses to efforts to “balance the system.”
Happily, our relationship with nature can play an integral role in the process.
Defining Resilience
Scholars say people use psychological resistance to survive immediate threats. But when stressors keep coming, the body’s defenses can be pushed into overdrive, eventually depleting its resources and negatively affecting mental and physical health.
For the longer term, recovery from threats and their impacts depends on psychological resilience.
A 2019 meta-study of resilience defined it as “the ability to maintain one’s orientation toward existential purposes despite enduring adversities and stressful events.”
The American Psychological Association poses another definition: “Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
Psychological resistance and resilience can be balanced to cope with environmental stressors through a variety of psychological and social processes and resources.
Effects of Chronic Stress
When our body perceives threats, it releases cortisol and adrenaline to prepare for “fight or flight”—which is helpful when needed. But relentless threats are emotionally draining, and without time to recover, chronic stress can lead to poor health:
The brain may exhibit problems with concentration, memory, anxiety, depression, or sleep.
The cardiovascular system may suffer increased heart rate, high blood pressure, heart attack, or stroke.
The digestive system, closely linked to the brain, can react with digestive issues and changes in appetite.
The immune system may be weakened, creating openings for bacterial and viral illnesses to take hold and be tough to conquer.
The muscles tighten, leading to stiffness, pain, and headaches.
Emotions may become irregular, causing irritability, anger, or depression.
Nature and Health
The World Health Organization has defined health as a “complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Environmental issues consistently linked to impaired health include crowding, noise pollution, and temperature.
It is not just direct physical contact with adverse environmental factors that harms people. Indirect means, such as stress responses to environmental circumstances, can lead to adverse physical and emotional outcomes. For example, exposure to noise pollution may not harm hearing, but the annoyance it generates may cause long-term stress.
Urbanization has been linked with higher levels of anxiety and depression. On the other side, studies have shown that exposure to nature can benefit human health in myriad ways.
Urbanization has been linked with higher levels of anxiety and depression. On the other side, studies have shown that exposure to nature can benefit human health in myriad ways.
The mental health benefits of time in nature include superior attention, memory, and impulse inhibition, along with increased feelings of subjective well-being. An article from UC Davis Health points out that being in nature benefits our physical bodies with reduced cortisol levels, muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure, and increased vitamin D levels that boost blood cells, bones, and the immune system.
A new scientific approach called nature-based biopsychosocial resilience theory (NBRT)—proposed in a study published in Environment International in 2023—states that “nature offers an abundance of resilience-building opportunities which can also reduce risk and help people cope with the inevitable challenges life brings.” The authors recommend an “improved understanding of the many ways in which our own health and well-being is intricately bound up with the health of the planet as a whole.”
Building Better Resilience
Psychological resistance is a complex defense system that our minds use to protect us from perceived threats, whether real or imagined. But people can take steps to shift from excessive psychological resistance toward healthy tolerance and resilience. Resilience is also complex. It is a dynamic process that evolves at the intersections of different realms in a person’s life—biological, social, and psychological.
The Reality Pathing blog, in a post titled, “Building Resilience through the Power of Acceptance,” cites the importance of building resilience through acceptance. Acceptance is seeing and embracing reality as it is rather than how it is wished to be. It does not involve giving up or relinquishing power to make changes. It simply leads one to acknowledge whatever circumstances arise without judgment. It is a mindful way to reach a sense of peace amid chaos.
[Acceptance] simply leads one to acknowledge whatever circumstances arise without judgment. It is a mindful way to reach a sense of peace amid chaos.
Numerous actions can boost resilience against environmental stressors.
For Individuals
When news of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and extreme temperatures feel beyond control, people can focus on small, manageable actions to counteract feelings of helplessness and build a sense of control and purpose. Conserve energy at home, use environmentally friendly transportation, reduce waste, and join local environmental groups. Practice emotional coping by concentrating on what can be done personally rather than becoming overwhelmed by the vastness of a problem.
In terms of the invisible environmental toxins and other daily stressors, negative impacts can be immediately reduced by improving air quality at home with air purifiers, ventilation, and plants; avoiding contaminants (pesticides, paint, artificial fragrances); and creating a quiet indoor sanctuary that is free of clutter and incorporates nature elements to promote calm.
One’s mental and physical ability to cope with stress—resilience—can only improve with time in nature, ample sleep, regular exercise, mindfulness meditation, and a healthy diet.
For Communities
Social collaboration can be fostered in communities by involving citizens in efforts to make their area more resilient to environmental threats. By investing in natural infrastructure, such as urban greening and preservation of local ecosystems, individuals’ experience enhances well-being while dangerous environmental events are mitigated. Features such as cool roofs, parking lot shading, and tree planting all make life easier and help to reduce stress from environmental events simply by reducing the likelihood and severity of any potential catastrophes.
Nature-based solutions are especially effective when they are developed in collaboration with community members to enhance community-level social-ecological resilience. Once established at the group level, nature contact also helps individuals cope with chronic stress.
Nature-based solutions are especially effective when they are developed in collaboration with community members to enhance community-level social-ecological resilience.
It has been suggested that resilience is a collection of adaptive resources. These resources can be deployed to help mitigate stress, but they must be restored and maintained through things such as nature contact.
Policies
There has been growing interest recently in the potential health and well-being benefits of natural environments, with policies requiring integration of green spaces in developments and protection of natural areas.
In addition, largely due to climate change, there has been recognition that wild settings, such as woodlands or wetlands, can partially mitigate stressors related to climate change. For example, urban heat is reduced when tree canopies and green spaces are present, and flood risk is diminished when there are ample plant cover and wetlands to absorb rainfall.
Policy can be shaped with climate adaptation in mind by offering resources to implement green measures such as clean energy.
A New Paradigm
There is no one factor that differentiates a resilient person from a vulnerable one. Instead, resilience exists thanks to a network of positive experiences and a healthy lifestyle that contribute to a balanced mind–body connection.
According to Souhad Chbeir and Victor Carrión, writing in the World Journal of Psychiatry, no matter where someone falls on the resilience scale, they can try to move away from attempts to eradicate environmental threats and toward modulating resistance and bolstering repair. This would be a paradigm shift toward increased resilience. The writers say that, instead of an aggressive and reactive mindset of eradication, which promotes grappling with the impossible removal of all environmental threats, people can approach the world with proactive and adaptive methods.
Individuals and communities can increase resilience by focusing on increasing the capacity of ecosystems and societies to withstand and absorb pollution and climate change effects without collapse. For example, instead of thinking about reducing the heat of the entire planet, citizens could plant urban forests to lower temperatures in their city and improve infrastructure design. They could assist local ecosystems to regenerate by working toward ecological engineering and adaptive management. Instead of only fighting against the way nature is right now, collaborating with nature in the local area can help it, and us, become stronger and more adaptable.
*Julie Peterson writes science-based articles about holistic health, environmental issues, and sustainable living from her small farm in Wisconsin.