We would like to share seven skills of resilience that were shared by our Board Chair, Erica Teklits, during our virtual Annual General Meeting. Below is a summary of these skills which were taken from an article published by Psychology Today. You can read the full article and each skill in greater detail here.
We hope you find this information helpful as we all continue to navigate and cope with life during a pandemic.
Seven Skills of Resilience
Principle 1: Cultivate a Belief in Your Ability to Cope.
Acknowledge your feelings and tell yourself it’s Ok to feel the emotions you are experiencing. From here, think about and focus on the personal strengths and resources you already have or hardships you’ve already overcome and draw your belief in your ability to cope from there.
Principle 2: Stay Connected With Sources of Support.
Humans are social creatures. Now is the time to stay connected and get in touch with the supportive people in your life. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
Principle 3: Talk About What You’re Going Through.
It’s best to process what you are going through in real-time. Find someone you can speak with to share how you’re feeling or take time to journal your feelings to yourself.
Principle 4: Be Helpful to Others.
Helping others can be rewarding and empowering and brings a sense of purpose. Take the time to reflect on the feeling of being helpful and let yourself experience the rewards of helping others. Be sure to set boundaries and not overextend yourself, which can lead to burnout.
Principle 5: Activate Positive Emotion.
Find things that activate and cultivate positive feeling, such as gratitude, love, appreciation, simple pleasures, and commit to making them a part of your day. This can be doing your favourite activity like exercise, making home-cooked meal, walking your dog, baking, reading, something that makes you laugh or planning a trip once this is all over.
Principle 6: Cultivate an Attitude of Survivorship.
It’s important to accept the reality we are facing and to try to adopt a survivor mentality as this activates our own inner strength and is more beneficial to us in the long run. Draw on inspiration of people you may know, respect or stories you’ve heard about survivorship. How can you take a similar approach to the current challenges?
Principle 7: Seek Meaning.
Everyone needs a purpose. Connect with whatever your belief systems are – or aren’t – to find a sense of meaning in the hardships we are experiencing right now. Think about how you can apply these to your current situation. Another simple daily practice could be to read something meaningful or inspirational each day.