How to Boost Your Bounce-Back Skills

The team looked at common factors that were predictive of resilience in the older adults. Those who were psychologically and emotionally well were the most likely to bounce back. In fact, they were almost five times more likely to rebound than those who didn’t have higher well-being in those areas at the start of the study.

Solid mental health is linked to better health and outcomes in older adults, but it can be hard to achieve if you’ve had it tough in that area in the past, or if you’re dealing with a chronic health condition. Not at your bounce-back best? There are ways to get there, experts say.

The Age Angle

“Old age is not just about doom and gloom,” says Mabel Ho, coauthor of the PLOS One report and a researcher at the Institute for Life Course and Aging at the University of Toronto. “There are things we can do and it’s possible that people can recover.”

It’s never too late or too early to engage in an active lifestyle, or to make mental and social well-being a priority. Starting therapy or exercise, for example, gives you control over your trajectory, they say. Start small, making one change in one area of well-being, says coauthor Esme Fuller-Thomson, the professor who directs the institute.

She knows it’s hard to rebound, especially if you are feeling down or don’t have a lot of energy. As you age, she says, you may be more isolated than you were in previous years. “All of these pieces make it harder, but not impossible, to improve,” Fuller-Thomson adds.

Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology in the Social & Behavioral Sciences Department at the Yale School of Public Health, says possessing more negative stereotypes is correlated with worse health outcomes. In her 2022 study in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, she measured perceptions on aging in older adults up to 23 years before they died. Those with more positive views lived 7.5 years longer than those who thought less positively about growing older.

Similarly, a 2010 study in Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research shows that those living past 100 were more resilient than their younger counterparts. In fact, people ages 94 to 98 with stronger resilience had a 43.1 percent higher chance of reaching 100.

Finding ways to strengthen positive beliefs on aging may be a challenge, but it could have benefits for health overall. “Most people are not necessarily aware of beliefs that they’ve taken in from the culture,” Levy says.

The Role of Mental Health in Resilience

Older adults in generally tend to have fewer mental health problems than younger people because they’ve seen that things improve over time, time and time again, throughout their lives, Levy says. They may have more experience in coping, too, she adds.

A 2021 report in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry on 2,021 people between 50 and 80 years old shows that 80 percent of them said they were in better mental health than they were 20 years earlier. Those between 70 and 80 were more likely to report better mental health than those in their 50s. Worsening mental health isn’t normal as you age, and resilience, wisdom and life experience may help boost mental health in the face of stressors as people age, the authors wrote.

A 2022 study in BMC Geriatrics evaluated the mental health of 889 people over 60 in Spain shortly after COVID-19 lockdowns. Higher levels of gratitude, sense of purpose, personal growth and lower levels of depression were linked with better resilience, the data showed.

Of course, not every older adult has glowing mental health. You may find it hard to feel grateful, or you might have battled depression throughout your life. How you view aging could play a part in those views, Levy says.

How to Be More Resilient

Some factors tied to resilience after trauma, specifically, according to a 2014 study in European Journal of Psychotraumatology, include optimism, mental flexibility, coping skills, solid social supports, attention to physical health and having a moral compass.

Recovering from a stressor and returning to well-being is one aspect of resilience. Having a long-term purpose, in terms of interests and causes to engage in, is another. Finally, growing from the setback enables you to get stronger and perhaps see the stressor as a positive catalyst for change.

A few tips to improve your resilience include:

• Stay social. Cultivate relationships with loved ones and friends (and making new connections) can give you the support you need when things are rough — and as you emerge stronger, the Mayo Clinic notes. Whatever has set you back, having a positive role model — whether you know them in real life or not — may be helpful, Levy says. So can going through the recovery process with someone else in similar shoes. “That can be very empowering and mutually reinforcing,” she adds.
• Bring on the purpose. Do something that gives you a sense of success and purpose every day. Set clear goals that you can reach to help you look toward the future with meaning.
• Ask for help. Understanding your coping skills and patterns, and taking steps to improve them, is key for more robust resilience. Seeing a therapist or other professional may offer help if you feel stuck mentally or physically.
• Take care of your body. Not all setbacks are mental. If you’re dealing with a medical challenge, do what it takes to feel your best. That may mean sticking to doctor’s orders or getting more physical activity. Make sure you’re getting services that you’re entitled to in order to support your physical recovery, Levy says. For instance, if you now have to use a walker, you may want to reorganize your home to prioritize that need. “Finding the right services, accommodations and people to assist in right-sizing the person-environment relationship can assist with bouncing back,” Coker says.
• Set realistic expectations. Feeling down while recuperating from a surgery can be tough, but adding pressure on yourself to get back to your usual fitness routine while you’re still in the hospital isn’t a realistic prospect. Setting small goals and taking small steps can support you in rebounding from the hardship.
• Focus on flexibility. Though the past may have been challenging or devastating, fostering a sense of optimism and being willing to try alternative solutions could be what helps you get back to a better place.
• Learn. Focus on how you’ve dealt with hard times in the past. What helped you through? In addition to learning from the past, learning new skills to help you get through a situation and come out stronger is linked with being more resilient, the National Alliance on Mental Illness reports.

“Encouraging older adults to reconnect, to engage, to create, to explore, to learn while also welcoming their wisdom, contributions, ideas and lessons of lives well-lived can and should foster resilience,” Coker says.