“Challenges don’t define you. How the past two decades, Southwick and you respond does,” remarks Doug his colleagues have studied three Hensch, an executive coach and augroups that have come through harthor of Positively Resilient: 5½ Secrets rowing events: being Vietnam War to Beat Stress, Overcome Obstacles, prisoners, Special Forces instructors and Defeat Anxiety. He attests that and civilians. They found people that having a growth mindset is vital, rebounded strongly often shared comfocusing on strengths without disremon attributes, including embracing a garding areas needing improvement. spiritual outlook and social network. Maintaining a balanced outlook In 2013, Damon Redd, of Boulthat’s realistic, yet posider, Colorado, awoke tive, enables individuals Parents do a to a severe flooding to move on from trauma. event, with his home disservice to their and business buried For supersurvivors, being pragmatic serves kids when they under five feet of mud them far better than a and water that nearly false sense of optimism try to remove wiped out his clothing about bad situations, business, Kind Design, adversity from Feldman found, saying, overnight. “It was the “They grieved losses, hardest thing I’ve ever their lives. When but thought realistically gone through, to lose little things go about what to do next.” everything I had built. “Optimism in the wrong, rather than It also gave me a new best sense is focusing perspective on what’s rush to fix it, let on the positive without important. It made me denying the negathe kids figure out aware that you can tive, while focusing on replace physical things, what’s in your control,” a solution. They’ll but you can’t replace notes Hensch. memories. My mind was realize it’s not the Martin Seligman, blown away by the supknown as the “father of port I received.” positive psychology”, found that when Redd ended up paying forward the people take setbacks personally, kindness. “We cleaned and repaired viewing them as permanent, pervasive 1,500 pairs of gloves in our inventory and personal, they develop a sense that were damaged that day, and are of learned helplessness that inhibits donating them to search-and-rescue growth and happiness. “It’s important teams and ski patrols. The more good not to ‘catastrophize’ or generalize a you do, the more good other people failure and extend it to other areas of will do,” Redd professes. life,” says Dr. Steven M. Southwick, a Altruism and owning a moral code professor of psychiatry at Yale Univeris another common characteristic sity School of Medicine who focuses of resilient individuals, according to on post-traumatic stress disorder and Southwick. Having a purpose is a huge resilience. indicator of whether a person will rise to the occasion. “You can endure almost anything if you have a mission, or beMake Caring Connections lieve what you are doing has meaning. It Social networks are critical in the face gives you great strength,” he says. of challenges, resilience experts agree. In 2016, Bobbi Huffman lost her “When we are wronged or feel unsafe, high school sweetheart and husband it’s natural to withdraw when we should to suicide a few days before Valendo the opposite,” says Feldman. “It’s tine’s Day. As she began to process also not the number of friends you have, the tragedy, she saw two choices or even how much time you spend with ahead: “Drop into a deep depresthem, that matters. All you need is at sion and give up or focus on our deep least one person you can count on.” love for one another, get into therapy, “We are built to be connected and make a difference by inspiring, with others. It has a significant impact encouraging and helping others,” says in regulating stress,” says Southwick, Huffman. a co-author of Resilience: The Science She chose the latter, asking for of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, professional help and signing up from West Haven, Connecticut. Over
RESILIENCE RESOURCES Helpful Organizations
OptionB.org provides a supportive space online for survivors of trauma and adversity to share stories, connect with others and get help from experts. LearningConnection.Stanford. edu/Resilience-Project normalizes setbacks and failures as part and parcel of professional and personal growth, and provides Stanford University students and faculty a platform to swap stories and coping strategies. Resilience.Education.UTexas. edu conveys an interactive e-learning platform developed by the University of Texas at Austin to foster a better understanding of resilience and develop related skills.
Films and Books
Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story documents the journey of chef and outdoorsman Eduardo Garcia, whose life changed irrevocably when he was jolted with 2,400 volts of electricity while hiking in Montana. Garcia lost his hand, ribs and muscle mass, but survived the injury with the help of his former partner, and became an athlete and speaker for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Unbroken depicts the life of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days on a raft after a near-fatal plane crash in World War II, only to be captured by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. The film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand, herself the survivor of a disabling chronic illness. The 33 tells the true tale of 33 miners trapped inside a mine in San Jose, Chile, for more than two months, the longest such entrapment in history. All were rescued alive. Wild is based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of her solo hike of 1,000-plus miles on the Pacific Crest Trail without any training, following the loss of her mother and marriage.
natural awakenings
February 2018
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