Neurozone® Resources

Business Coaching: Leadership Priorities -  Wellness, Well-being or Resilience?

Written by Dr Chrisna Swart | Jun 30, 2022 1:44:32 PM

To read the full article, you can click here and find it on page 80:

Understanding the difference between wellness, well-being and resilience is pivotal to implementing interventions to ensure our leaders don’t burn out, and that we remain able to perform at our best.

  • Wellness is defined as the pursuit of attaining a sense of well-being specifically by doing certain actions to get you there 
  • Well-being is the result of implementing these 'acts' of wellness, especially if these 'acts' become daily habits. At Neurozone, we call these “neurobehaviors”, as they enhance brain performance from the basic to sophisticated (from the brainstem to the prefrontal cortex) and include habits ranging from exercise, sleep hygiene and mindfulness, to belonging, enthusiasm, and curiosity.
  • Resilience, on the other hand, is the capacity to cope successfully in the face of stressors or adversity, involving both “bouncing back”, and “bouncing forward” after such an event. 

When we aren’t resilient, we can’t move back to a state of calm (a baseline relaxed physiological state) which then causes chronic stress - and ultimately - burnout. This state of calm is also what provides us with the capacity for elevated problem solving and high performance.

Ultimately, resilience is the foundation on which well-being is built on and by practicing key wellness-habits daily, we can ensure that we are able to bounce back from a challenge and continue to maintain our emotional, physical and psychological well-being, setting the scene for thriving.

Dr Chrisna also highlights the importance of making meaning and having a sense of belonging and shared purpose as key connectors that drive social safety within work teams. These mental states impact our resilience and contribute greatly to our sense of well-being.