THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HEXAGON OF RESILIENCE

Psychological resilience is about how you make sense of the world, how you interpret challenges and how you respond when pressure builds. Physical resilience gives you capacity. Psychological resilience gives you clarity and steadiness. This domain focuses on the part of resilience that happens inside your mind long before anything shows on the outside.

There are three core elements. Agency, Interpretation and Behaviour Patterns. Together they shape how you experience difficulty and how effectively you navigate it. None of these require perfection or constant positivity. They only ask for awareness and small, steady adjustments. These adjustments shift your emotional world, your confidence and the way your nervous system responds to uncertainty.

Agency

Agency is your sense of influence. It is your feeling of I still have some control here. When life becomes stressful or uncertain your body and mind automatically search for this feeling long before you consciously think about it. If you sense even a small amount of control your nervous system steadies. You breathe more easily. You think more clearly. You move from threat to possibility. When agency disappears everything feels heavier, more personal and much harder to manage.

Agency is not about control in the absolute sense. It is not about changing everything or fixing the situation. It is about noticing the tiny spaces where choice still exists even when life feels crowded. A small decision, a small adjustment or a small act of influence can shift how you feel in a meaningful way.

If you look for places where you still have influence your emotional intensity drops and you start to cope from a steadier place. When you forget you have influence your stress response increases and even familiar challenges start to feel overwhelming. Agency is often the difference between feeling trapped and feeling capable.

Dopamine rises when you take small meaningful actions. Serotonin stabilises when you feel grounded and capable. Oxytocin increases when you reach out for support rather than shutting down. Endorphins ease emotional tension when you stop resisting and take a step forward. Small acts of agency shift your internal chemistry toward resilience.

The key question here is simple. Where do I still have some influence. Even if the answer is small it is enough.

Interpretation

Interpretation is the meaning you attach to events. It is the story you tell yourself about what is happening and the mindset behind that story. Under pressure the mind fills in gaps quickly. It can slip into harsh assumptions, imagined criticism or worst case scenarios. Thoughts like I am failing or They are disappointed or This will go wrong can appear automatically. These interpretations shape your emotional world more than the events themselves.

Your mindset sets the tone of these stories. Whether you lean toward possibility or danger, self trust or self doubt, fairness or harshness. Interpretation is not about unrealistic positivity or pretending everything is fine. It is about accuracy. It is about noticing when your inner story has drifted into something heavier than the facts deserve.

When you soften or adjust the story you are telling yourself your emotional experience changes almost immediately. You feel steadier. You see the situation with more options. You stop treating uncertainty as a threat. Interpretation is one of the most powerful psychological shifts available because it directly changes your emotional state.

Dopamine rises when you reinterpret situations with possibility instead of defeat. Serotonin increases when your narrative becomes balanced and steady. Oxytocin grows when stories of threat become stories of connection. Endorphins reduce emotional tension when you release catastrophic thinking. Changing the story changes the chemistry.

The question to return to is simple. What story am I telling myself. You can then ask whether that story is fair, true or helpful.

Behaviour Patterns

Behaviour Patterns are the things you tend to do when things feel like too much. Many people cope by avoiding discomfort. This can look like delaying, overthinking, withdrawing, numbing, over preparing or shutting down. Avoidance brings short term relief which is why it is so common. But it reinforces anxiety and reduces confidence over time. It also reduces your capacity to deal with difficult situations because you never get the chance to practise approaching them.

Behaviour patterns are not fixed. They are habits and habits can be changed. Breaking avoidance does not require bravery or intensity. It requires one small approach behaviour instead of another avoidance. It can be as simple as sending the message you have been delaying or starting a task for two minutes or asking one question you have been avoiding.

When you choose an approach behaviour your nervous system interprets this as a sign of capability. You become less reactive and more stable. When you choose avoidance your nervous system interprets this as threat. Your emotional load increases. Patterns repeat until you intervene with a different choice.

Dopamine increases when you take small forward steps. Serotonin rises when avoidance decreases and life becomes more predictable. Oxytocin increases when you seek connection rather than isolating. Endorphins help regulate discomfort when you act instead of suppressing. Every small approach behaviour supports resilience.

The key reflective question is. What do I tend to do when things feel too much. Then. Does this help me or trap me. Once you understand your pattern you can make a different choice.

Bringing These Three Together

Agency, Interpretation and Behaviour Patterns shape how you think, feel and respond. They interact continuously. When you experience a small sense of influence your interpretations soften and your behaviour becomes more constructive. When your interpretations become harsh you lose agency and your behaviour becomes more avoidant. When patterns of avoidance increase your interpretations worsen and your sense of influence collapses.

Psychological resilience grows from small adjustments. Noticing a thought. Choosing a different story. Taking a gentle forward step. Looking for the part you can influence. Asking for help instead of withdrawing. These are simple actions but they shift the way you experience pressure. They also influence your internal chemistry which is why they are powerful.

The aim is not perfection. It is awareness. It is about noticing your internal world early and adjusting before things escalate. When you do this consistently you feel more capable and less reactive. You respond instead of reacting. You navigate pressure with more steadiness. You recover more quickly from difficulty. Psychological resilience is built one small choice at a time.

This content was compiled by David Yates and edited for this blog by Duncan Maddox. Any mistakes in content, grammar or formatting are entirely mine (Duncan).