FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- The Army defines resilience as "the mental, physical, emotional and behavioral ability to face and cope with adversity, adapt to change, recover, learn and grow from setbacks."
Soldiers receive resiliency training as early as basic training in order to help them achieve mental dexterity, think clearly and stay calm in stressful situations.
The resilience training model is a set of skills that build off of one another -- like a pyramid. It teaches life skills that will help Soldiers build strong relationships and mental toughness and develop character strengths.
These are skills that promote critical thinking, establish effective communication techniques, and reinforce problem solving skills.
As an enhancement to the resilience training model, the Department of Defense has funded a new study on mindfulness.
The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI), was selected to participate in a pilot program designed by Dr. Amishi P. Jha, PhD, associate professor of psychology, University of Miami, Florida.
Jha and a team of researchers visited Fort Drum last week to meet with Soldiers and spouses, familiarize them with the mindfulness program and set the ground work for the upcoming training.
"Pilot research suggests that Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training is successful at bolstering mind fitness and building resilience against stressors in a military cohort," Jha said.
As the most deployed division in today's Army, many Soldiers and spouses of the 10th Mountain Division (LI) can relate to the stressors that accompany deployment.
A large study of Army troops found that 654 Soldiers who deployed to Iraq between April 2003 and May 2005 did significantly worse in tasks that measured spatial memory, verbal ability and the ability to focus than 307 Soldiers who had not deployed, Jha explained in a recent article.
"In contrast, the Soldiers who had deployed outperformed those who had not in terms of quick reaction time (for example, how long it takes to spot a computer icon and react).
"In effect, the deployed Soldiers' brains built the capacity for quick reaction, a function more necessary for survival in Iraq, while experiencing degradation in other mental capacities."
Throughout their training, Soldiers will learn to meditate and begin to understand their own inner workings in an effort to negate stressors in not only their professional lives, but their personal ones too.
"The right amount of stress will allow a decision maker to function at peak performance. However, excessive stress has biological and psychological consequences that reduce the capacity to process new information and learn. Stress may also bias decision making more toward reactive, unconscious emotional choices," Jha said.
The training regimen for 1st BCT Soldiers and spouses is a multi-week process that will assess their cognitive performance and their well-being before and after the training.
During the training, Soldiers will be given time to listen to meditation courses on MP3 players assigned to them and provide feedback to Jha and her researchers.
"We're looking at the effects of mindfulness meditation on Soldiers' overall performance and mental well-being." said Nicolas Ramos, a research associate working with Jha.
The training is four weeks long, two hours per week, with three pilot groups slated to participate from now until October.
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