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Five Essential Resilience Practices
Article
Kristen Esposito Brendel
Due to the increased stressors and demands experienced by school-based professionals (SBP) since the onset of the pandemic, districts have been devoting in-service days and creating professional development opportunities to support staff’s self-care, stress-reduction, and resiliency. A silver lining to the pandemic is that many districts plan to continue this precedence indefinitely. I’ve been working with several districts, facilitating a variety of stress-reduction trainings for staff and parents during the current academic year. The trainings included five essential sustainable self-care and resilience practices based on my upcoming book. Sustainable self-care is the process of cultivating awareness of one’s state of being and responding with intentional care, non-judgment, and kindness. What makes it sustainable is that it can be practiced throughout the day, with limited resources, and the methods provide short- and long-term resiliency and stress reduction effects. The sustainable selfcare practices presented here include the Window of Tolerance, STOP, non-judgment, SAND, and setting valuebased boundaries. These five practices are tailored to the needs of SBP and can apply to any setting.
1. The Window of Tolerance.
Coined by Dr. Dan Siegel, the Window of Tolerance (WOT) sets the foundation and starting point for sustainable selfcare practices. The WOT is essentially our optimal state of being where we can tolerate stressors and have a sense of manageability in our responses and reactions. It is also known as homeostasis, or the rest, digest, connect, and restore state of being. When we are in this state, we can better deliver instruction or services, self-and coregulate, receive information with an open mind, think creatively, and manage our mental wellness. The concept of the WOT includes two other states of being: hyperarousal and hypoarousal. Hyperarousal is characterized by our sympathetic nervous system’s activation and mobilization response of fight or flight. During hyperarousal, our stress responses have been activated, resulting in increased adrenaline and cortisol, which powers up our system to ready us for action. Hypoarousal, triggered by our immobilization responses, helps to facilitate self-preservation. It is most widely known as the freeze or fold response. Examples of this response include freezing up, drawing a blank, withdrawing, and in more extreme situations, fainting and dissociating.
The key practice to strengthen resiliency is frequent check-ins with your WOT. Ask yourself, how am I feeling right now? What state am I in? What can I do to move one step closer to the WOT or maintain my current place within the WOT? Simple things like taking a few slow breaths, drinking a glass of water, eating something nourishing, closing the computer, putting your phone down, pausing before responding, or moving the body is all that it takes. The most significant self-care benefits arise when we cultivate awareness of our needs then respond accordingly.
2. The STOP practice
Created by Dr. Elisha Goldstein, STOP is an acronym for stop what you are doing, take a few slow breaths, observe your state of being, including your thoughts, emotions, and sensations within your body, and proceed gently to the task at hand. This practice can be accomplished in as little as thirty seconds or several minutes, depending on what you need and how much time you have. It’s one of my favorite practices because it’s useful for transitions between activities, classes, and meetings. It helps prevent past events and states of being from creeping into the present.
3. Non-judgment
Practicing non-judgment involves recognizing when our thoughts move from observations of an event to escalating or spiraling into worry,
rumination, or strong opinions based on fear, often resulting in moving out of our WOT into hyperarousal or hypoarousal. Checking in and gauging where you are at within the WOT is a necessary first step to the process, followed by remaining present on what you can observe. When you notice your mind is beginning to judge, kindly and gently bringing your attention back to observing the situation and your experiences. Practicing nonjudgment consistently can help widen our WOT, increasing the space between stimulus and response.
4. The SAND practice
The fourth practice for strengthening resilience that builds upon non-judgment is the SAND practice, which is an acronym for setting your intention, attend to your intention/ point of focus while not judging your thoughts, sensations, emotions, and directing your attention, kindly and gently, back to your point of focus. The SAND practice will help you maintain awareness, presence, and homeostasis while engaging in your dayto-day activities.
5. Value-Based Boundaries
Value-based boundaries involve a boundary fit between a person and their environment. For example, if you value being fully present with your family outside of work hours, choosing not to work on the computer while being with your family is honoring your value-based boundaries. The fact is when you say yes to something, you also are saying no to something else, and what you’re saying no to typically is self-care, including time with family or friends, sleep, or other opportunities to nourish, relax, and
restore. When you live within your valuebased boundaries, you’ll also be able to contend with the consequences; it will make saying no easier. When you agree to take on an additional project and weigh it up to your values, it will likely make the experience richer and more worthwhile.
Often the most challenging aspect of sustainable self-care is remembering to practice. As you begin to engage in these practices, I suggest that you set an alert
on your phone or smartwatch, wear a bracelet that can serve as a reminder to practice, get a buddy system together for support, or be creative. Perhaps consider creating a self-care challenge in your building or on social media.
Regularly engaging in the five essential resilience practices of the Window of Tolerance, STOP, non-judgment, SAND, and value-based boundaries will help SBP ride the waves of stress without getting caught in a riptide of adversities. These sustainable practices help cultivate awareness of your current state of being while increasing resiliency. To quote Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Kristen Esposito Brendel, Ph.D., LCSW,
PEL, C-IAYT is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Aurora University. Her teaching, research, and practice interests involve the intersection of mindfulnessbased interventions, stress reduction research, and resiliency practices. Dr. Brendel is also the founder and executive director of Per La Vita Wellness, LLC, a social enterprise with the mission of increasing supports and protective mechanisms for health care, mental health, and school-based professionals. With expertise in mindfulness-based interventions, Dr. Brendel presents nationally and internationally on her research and regularly facilitates professional development workshops and retreats at school districts, non-profits, and the corporate sector.
