A Commentary: rethinking approaches to resilience and mental health training

While exposure to demands are normally considered to drain resources and threaten wellbeing, some people experience growth and development from adversity that fosters adaptations in human functioning. Recent research has revealed a positive role for adversity in building the ability to adapt well to future adversity. However, how and why adversity functions to facilitate resilience in some people is an empirical question. We propose that systematic self-reflection is an important strategy for facilitating resilience as a consequence of stressor exposure. The systematic self-reflection model of resilience building, presented in this paper, is a new approach to military resilience training intended to complement existing training methods that focus on the enhancement of adaptive coping used in the Australian Defence Force.