Want to strengthen your well-being and bolster your ability to respond to stress? Consider fostering a “durability mindset.”

Justin Ross, a licensed clinical psychologist and director of workplace wellness for UCHealth, outlines what a durability mindset is and how to build one.

Resiliency and durability are two different things

Ross said durability and resiliency are different, and the latter has gained attention in recent years.

“Every day is going to have some version of challenge, stress and strain,” said Ross, who has a doctorate in psychology. “Resiliency is your ability to get through those stressors, to bounce back on a daily basis.”

Durability is the ability to withstand stress and strain over long durations of time, Ross said.

To distinguish between the two, Ross uses a metaphor of a building catching on fire.

“If the building you’re sitting in right now catches on fire, I’m not going to tell you to become more flame-resistant – I’m going to tell you to get out of the building. That’s resiliency,” Ross said. “Durability is thinking about how we build a more flame-resistant building in the first place, or detect issues and put them out before they become fires.”

It’s never too late to build durability

You can build a durability mindset at any age, and it can benefit everyone, from young children to older adults.

And you don’t need to unlearn negative habits before integrating positive ones, Ross said.

“As an adult, if I want to learn a second language, I don’t have to unlearn English to make room for Spanish,” Ross said.

The same goes for a durability mindset. Instead of focusing on stopping negative thought patterns, take five minutes to experience a positive emotion to find a greater sense of well-being and feelings of being stable, connected and in control.

“Well-being does not mean being happy all the time; rather, it is the ability to experience positive emotions relatively quickly and access them more easily,” Ross said.

Long periods of stress and the resulting burnout often erode someone’s ability to access positive emotions.

“What people will find with this practice is they can access that range of positive emotions more readily,” Ross said. “A big part of this is understanding how important our cognitive framework or mindset is in terms of anchoring our well-being.”

Micro-practices of positive emotions 

Developing a durability mindset may be easier than you expect.

Most people understand the elements of wellness as:

• Getting sleep.
• Being physically active.
• Eating healthy foods.
• Making connections with others.
• Work with purpose.

“But sometimes the practice of these well-being efforts can be overwhelming or feel burdensome,” he said.

Ross recommends cultivating micro-practices to help build a durability mindset. He encourages people to spend a few minutes each day experiencing one of 10 positive, “expansive” emotions:

• Joy
• Gratitude
• Awe
• Serenity
• Interest
• Hope
• Pride
• Amusement
• Inspiration
• Love

“If you find a way to have a disciplined approach to engaging in just one of these positive emotions, these can become durability factors that can cultivate a sense of well-being,” Ross said.

Often, our go-to emotions are not the positive ones.

“If 100 things happen in a day, and 99 are neutral or positive, and one is even slightly negative, what do we do? We turn it over and over and over in our minds,” Ross said. “It’s human nature for us to get bogged down with those negative emotions, and it’s work to engage in durability practices because it goes against our natural default mode.”

But that work is vitally important.

“What we know about well-being is well-being doesn’t just happen,” Ross said. “It has to be purposefully curated on a daily basis.”

How to incorporate positive emotions into your day to help build a durability mindset

Joy

Joy, or savoring, involves paying attention and fully experiencing something, whether that’s a cup of coffee or a pretty sunset.

“The cliche of ‘Stop and smell the roses’ does have some grounding in well-being,” Ross said.

Even the seemingly mundane can provide joy. Savor a rainstorm by feeling the water drops on your skin, for example.

Gratitude

Experience gratitude every day. Ross recommends a micro-practice of thinking about three good things each day, such as a productive meeting with a colleague, helping a child with homework or enjoying a brisk walk outside.

Awe

“Taking a moment to reflect on and look for moments of awe can be really powerful,” Ross said. That might mean staring up at the night sky or considering the intricacies of how a car works.

And look for awe in unusual places. For example, imagine your child falls and hits his chin, resulting in a bloody gash. After cleaning him up and heading to the doctor for stitches, there might be a moment to reflect together with awe.

“Thinking, ‘Isn’t it amazing how much blood the human body holds?’ changes the moment. Suddenly, the conversation is redirected to awe,” Ross said. “It’s that mindset shift that gets us into this durability framework. Our kids are going to experience minor injuries from time-to-time, work is going to be stressful and full of challenges – these are great spaces to anchor in some durability practices.”

Serenity

Sit quietly in the morning or take a deep breath at a stoplight. However you do it, you can find focused pockets of peace even on the busiest days.

Interest

Give yourself permission to pursue something you find interesting, such as art, sports, music or history – the options are endless.

“It can be anything. It’s less about the interest itself, and more that you give yourself permission in your busy life to pursue something of personal interest,” Ross said.

Hope

“Hope is the sense that things are going to be okay and are going to get better,” Ross said. “Hope can also be connected to meaningful things you’re looking forward to – a trip, a concert, lunch with friends. The experience of looking forward with optimism and connection is really important for well-being.”

Pride

Take a moment to reflect on something you accomplished recently, big or small.

“Pride is a sense of feeling good about how you’ve shown up and engaged in the world, and what impact you’ve had on your life and on the lives of others,” Ross said.

Amusement

This emotion is all about fostering humor, staying lighthearted and being able to laugh at yourself. Amusement often happens when you’re with someone else.

Inspiration

Take a minute to feel inspired by taking in a story of someone who has encountered a situation they didn’t think was possible to handle, whether that’s coping with a cancer diagnosis or scaling a huge peak, and pushed through anyway.

“The beauty of inspiration is it helps you expand your worldview and think about other possibilities for yourself or for your entire community,” Ross said.

Love

You can experience love in various ways.

“There are different kinds of love,” Ross said. “It does not need to be romantic love. It can be love for friend, love for work, love for helping people improve.”

Build your positive emotion practice a few minutes each day, and find an accountability partner

When trying out these durability micro-practices, Ross emphasizes that a few minutes most days can lead to significant benefits.

“There’s no right or wrong way to do this,” Ross said. “Pick one emotion that seems most interesting to you and be playful as you create a disciplined practice to integrate it into your life in small, manageable ways.”

It can be helpful to have an accountability partner, whether that’s a friend or family member.

“To do this practice with another really helps cement it,” Ross said. “Over time, these bricks stack to create a durable sense of well-being.”