Building Mental Toughness Through Psychological Resilience Training
Resilience Training, also known as Soldier Health, was designed by Army Chief Warrant Officer Robert Bowen and was introduced in Fiscal Year 2021. The program is known as Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, which has three elements: the Global Assessment Tool; a test specifically for mental health (to more than 900,000 personnel to date); and self-help courses specifically designed for lieutenants. This program enables the armed forces to assess their health and the level of their capability against future threats. According to the US Army Association of Soldiers in the Field, Resilience Training is designed to create and maintain an environment that will enable Soldiers to adapt to an unpredictable, but also an adaptive and creative environment. The aim of Resilience Training is to prepare and develop the individual Soldiers for future deployment to combat zones.
A lot of people have misconceptions about Resilience Training and its relation to Trauma. Some believe that it is directly related to the suffering experienced after exposure to traumatic events such as explosions, violence, combat, or sexual assault. The fact is, however, that Resilience Training is not focused on the emotional symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but rather, on resiliency, which is defined as the ability to endure personal and environmental stresses. Resilience Training, therefore, does not focus on dealing with psychological symptoms, but on the capacity to adapt to challenges and survive in the face of adversity. This is very important to ensure that every soldier reaches his full potential and does not become obsolete in the army.
According to studies, there are two types of mental health concerns that can occur in Soldiers: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). GAD is related to mood swings, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive behavior; whereas PTSD is associated with nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, and impulsivity. Thus, through effective Resilience Training, military personnel can deal with both types of mental health concerns.
A master resilience training methodology involves three components. The first component focuses on teaching the students about resilience. A military individual is exposed to different stressful conditions and situations throughout his career, but he is expected to be resilient in the face of these conditions. This is especially important because some soldiers are often deployed to combat zones where they may come into contact with different kinds of psychological conditions, which may affect their mental fitness. The second component deals with learning how to cultivate resilience. Through this training, students are taught how to identify and cultivate positive psychology.
There are a number of ways to identify and cultivate positive psychology in soldiers. First, military resiliency training programs teach the students how to identify negative thoughts and how to immediately reject them. Second, the students are taught how to become resilient by building their self-esteem. When soldiers lack confidence in their own ability to do things, they tend to be unable to perform well in difficult situations. Finally, good leaders make sure that their subordinates have high morale, which is often indicative of high levels of personal resilience.
The third component of the training focuses on building mental toughness. This is often times overlooked in most military resiliency courses. But this is actually very important because mental toughness is one of the keys to excelling in any field. In fact, some of the most successful people in the world have been noted to have a high degree of mental toughness. Therefore, developing resilience should be high on the agenda of military personnel who wish to excel at their jobs.
The third component of the training program involves incorporating mindfulness training in the process. Mindfulness is an essential component of positive psychology, and it is particularly useful for military personnel who have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of stress associated with serving. Mindfulness training can help relieve the stress, enhance the personal strength and overall mental health of military personnel, and increase their resilience. This is important because many soldiers suffer from psychological health issues that can affect their performance.
Understanding the psychological nature of soldiers and incorporating it into military resiliency training programs can be very helpful. As mentioned above, a good number of soldiers are affected by psychological issues such as depression, stress and low self-esteem. By teaching them how to develop resilience through proper psychological processes, these people can ensure that they are able to get the job done and do it well.
Train Eq offers you a comprehensive catalog of on-site resilience training workshops to make every employee, Call us today.