IK ON
MENTAL RESILIENCE
In basic training, simple psychological skills are taught, linked to key events in the training programme. These are delivered through classroom sessions and individual coaching conversations. Micro-lessons and training diaries are also provided for recruits to reflect at any time. The psychological skills taught within MRT are: Goal setting. This involves learning how to break training events down into shortterm process goals in order to maintain focus, motivate and develop problem-solving skills. Goal setting also builds confidence and helps to achieve longer-term outcome goals. Work out what you ultimately want to achieve and break it into a series of SMART goals. Dealing with negative thoughts. Negative thoughts can have a significant impact. By noticing these thoughts, understanding that they are only thoughts, and moving on to focus on something else, we can reduce their impact on performance. You may not feel as though you can continue with something, or you should try less hard this time and catch up next time. These are just thoughts, not facts, so we can choose to focus on other things. Positive thinking and self-talk. A growth mindset shows us that there is always opportunity in adversity. Self-talk means providing a rational answer to any negative thoughts. This current situation may be hard, but by sticking to it you will reap rewards. Positive thinking increases self-confidence and motivation. By practising positive self-statements, such as “I can do this”, “I am good at this”, “I am strong”, you can focus your thinking on positive outcomes. In this way, you can make not giving up a habit.
MAJOR JIM CROMPTON AGC (ETS) is second-in-
command of the army’s Recruiting and Initial Training Command Staff Leadership School, training trainers of army recruits. He is also the current chair of SET
WARRANT OFFICER CLASS 2 AUSTIN LINDSAY R IRISH is the
army’s mental resilience training team leader. He was master coach at the Infantry Training Centre from 2013 to 2018 and has been responsible for delivering MRT training to soldiers for seven years
Emotional control. Emotions are important. They motivate action (fear produces a fight, flight or freeze response, sadness makes us withdraw, and so on). They affect our body language, which we communicate to others, so they can see how we are feeling. Often, emotions are helpful. When they are not helpful to us, we can do something about them. Professor Steve Peters’ ‘Chimp Paradox’ provides a really useful guide to, and exercises for, managing emotions and rational decision-making. By expecting and accepting emotional responses, we have the option to delay emotional reactions. If our instinct is to run away, we can choose not to for the time being. Then we can let the emotions out and explore them at a more appropriate time. Arousal and anxiety regulation. Physiological arousal is important to spur us into activity. Being too relaxed can be as detrimental to performance as being overanxious. Through experience, we can learn our own optimal level of physiological arousal. Anxiety is a normal emotion. It comes when we overestimate the negative consequences of an event and underestimate our ability to perform. As it is an emotion, we can manage it. One simple way of managing the effects of anxiety is to regulate our breathing. By distracting our attention and focusing on breathing in slowly for four seconds and out for four seconds, we can calm our breathing and our heart rate. Mental rehearsal and positive imagery. Visualisation is used routinely by elite athletes to prepare for events. You can stimulate many of the same areas of the brain by rehearsing mentally before you actually complete a task. Mental
THE KNOWLEDGE
rehearsal allows you to work through situations before you encounter them for real and to understand better how you can and will react. Remember, prior preparation and planning prevents poor performance.
What is MRT not? MRT is not about dealing with post-traumatic stress. MRT is not about pressure to perform perfectly. It is about understanding how to progress through stressful events. It also provides you with a framework so you know when you need to seek further support. There are other support mechanisms in place to help soldiers cope with significant workplace or home events. The skills taught correlate with some of the coping mechanisms used by medical professionals to manage psychological stress, but if, for any reason, you are unable to apply the techniques here and are experiencing too much stress, please seek further support and guidance. The NHS website has guidance on coping with stress, and charities such as Mind and Samaritans provide consultations and additional support.
References and further reading Bangor University research on mental resilience training: bit.ly/31MzJw6 Peters S. (2011) The Chimp Paradox. London: Vermilion. The techniques discussed are explored further in video micro-lessons on the British Army website: army.mod.uk/people/join-well/ mental-resilience Mind mind.org.uk Samaritans samaritans.org
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