An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir January / February 2024 www.military.ie/magazine 14 | T he concept of resilience has received much attention in the past few years and notably the concept has been included in several Defence Forces documents such as the new Leadership doctrine and the Infantry Ethos. Frequently we are told of the importance of resilience, but it's rare we learn how we can actually develop resilience. The goal of this short article is therefore to bridge this gap between theory and practice. I'll introduce some tangible tools, skills, tips etc. that you can begin to apply immediately. There are no magic bullets in psychology and developing our resilience takes time. In writing this article I'm primarily thinking about troops in training or those on intensive career courses. Often times in these environments our sense of control over our lives can really feel diminished: we are told what time to wake up, time to eat, sleep, where to be, even what clothes we are wearing! The beauty of the skills we'll be thinking about here is that regardless of the external demands placed on us, the majority of these skills can be used at any place, at any time and unless you tell others, they'll likely have no idea you're even using them! To begin I'm going to introduce you to you the concept of the 3 systems. The three systems is derived from a therapeutic approach called Compassionate Focused Therapy (CFT) which is a variation of Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT). The three systems are the: 1. Threat system 2. Drive System and 3. the Soothe system These systems represent the different ways in which our body and brain respond to what is happening in the world around us. From an evolutionary point of view, all three are vital for our survival but they can become either over or under activated in times of stress. One way we can build our resilience is to develop our understanding of these three systems and by practicing the skills which help keep them in balance. The threat system is activated in times of stress or danger and is like the fight or flight response. The drive system is responsible for getting us into gear to complete tasks. Finally the soothe system is responsible for recovery and recouperation. If you've completed any sort of military training, you'll probably already know which of these systems are more activated than others. Typically, the threat system and the drive system can be consistently active for those serving. In western society, most of us, from secondary school onwards, will fluctuate between having our threat and drive systems switched on chronically with an underpowered soothe system. The issue with long term activation of these two systems is that they use up a lot of our energy reserves. For many of us our bodies may be chronically in a low level state of fight or flight and have recovery systems which aren't able to keep up. In a perfect world we would have ample down-time, good quality sleep and manageable caffeine intake however this is simply not realistic for personnel in training environments: particularly as a recruit, cadet or on intense career courses. We need other strategies to help activate our soothe systems in the absence of these ideal conditions. Let's discuss some practical strategies below to activate your recovery system, slow down your threat system and help cope with stress… all of which contribute to resilience. Technique 1) Box breathing. Breathing is one of the few core functions of the body that we can consciously control. If you watch the Irish rugby team after a score you'll often see them huddle together and collectively take slow deep breaths. Why? Because slow, deep breaths from the belly help us to slow down the fight or flight response and have a measurable impact on the blood flow in the brain. Deep belly breathing actually helps activate the front part of our brains which is responsible for RESILIENCE: APPLIED SKILLS FOR RECRUITS TO RETIREES AND EVERYONE IN BETWEEN BY LT (RDF) COLM DOODY PHD, BA PHOTOS BY COLM DOODY PHD, BA Soldiers standing on parade

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