By yourlife

Harnessing the Power of Resilience

Apr 2, 2014 | 9:31 AM

Contributed by Stephanie Staples at Your Life Unlimited

What does an inexplicable suicide, a child pornography conviction and the confession of a secret that was buried for 10 years have in common?

All three were revealed to me this week within a 3-hour time span. Though none of the issues were directly impacting me, they seriously affected me.

Has that ever happened to you? When an influx of horrendous news makes your heart heavy and your soul sad.

I went back and forth between being noisy and busy and trying to block out the information that was dropped on my lap, and being still and quite trying to absorb it.

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1h ago

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16h ago

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UPDATE: Two people stab City of Nanaimo employee with needles at Maffeo Sutton Park

19h ago

Eventually, it gave me cause to reflect. Reflection is good.

I reflected on my own selfishness about things that I deemed important. I reflected on my own pettiness on problems that seemed crucial at the time. I reflected on my own self-absorbed issues that really don’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately, I reflected on my gratitude of things and people that I have been taking for granted.

Throughout this reflective process, one word really resonated with me…resilience.

As I tried to imagine what the families in these respective situations must be going through, I began to think it’s the psychological resilience (an individual’s ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity) that makes people overcome difficulties and not succumb to them.

Are you resilient? Am I? How do we know? How do we build upon the base of resilience that we already have?

Luckily, there is science behind developing resilience and there are some concrete things we can actively do to harness the power of resilience. 

Some factors that promote resilience include:

• The ability to cope with stress effectively and in a healthy manner
• Having good problem-solving skills
• Seeking help
• Holding the belief that there is something one can do to manage feelings and to cope
• Having social support
• Being connected with others, such as family or friends
• Maintaining positive emotions
• Self-disclosure of the trauma to loved ones
• Spirituality
• Having an identity as a survivor as opposed to a victim
• Helping others
• Finding positive meaning in the trauma

Know that these are teachable and learnable qualities that can insulate and protect us. Join me and work to develop them. Because we know it’s not a matter of, if crappy things happen to you, sorry to tell you, it’s just a matter of when.

Let’s be ready.

Steph

Stephanie Staples, CSP* is the author of When Enlightening Strikes – Creating a Mindset for Uncommon Success and an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker. She empowers audiences & clients across North America to bring their ‘A’ game to work and to life. Stephanie has a special interest in working with and empowering nurses and healthcare providers. She happily calls Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada home. You can get loads of complimentary resources to help with issues such as work/life balance, wellness, stress management and happiness in general, as well as find out more information about her coaching and speaking services at http://www.YourLifeUnlimited.ca. * Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), conferred by the National Speakers Association is the speaking profession’s international measure of professional platform proficiency. Less than 10 percent of speakers have earned this credential and are recognized as some of the best in their fields. Stephanie was one of only five professional speakers in Canada (and the only woman) to attain this designation in 2013.

The post Harnessing the Power of Resilience first appeared on Your Life Unlimited.

Contributed by Stephanie Staples at Your Life Unlimited