How to Practice the Building Blocks of RESILIENCE
Since we've asked you take the "We Are Raising Resilience Together" pledge, which is based on the American Psychological Association's building blocks for resilience, we want to share articles that show you HOW to practice those building blocks. A good way to start? Choose one building block to focus on each week through the holiday season. And... join us in the collective action of lifting each other: Take the pledge today!
CONNECTION
Read....Mayo Clinic: Build skills to endure hardship
Get connected. Building strong, positive relationships with loved ones and friends can provide you with needed support and acceptance in good and bad times. Establish other important connections by volunteering or joining a faith or spiritual community.
PERSPECTIVE
Read....American Psychological Association: Building your resilience
Keep things in perspective. How you think can play a significant part in how you feel—and how resilient you are when faced with obstacles. Try to identify areas of irrational thinking, such as a tendency to catastrophize difficulties or assume the world is out to get you, and adopt a more balanced and realistic thinking pattern. For instance, if you feel overwhelmed by a challenge, remind yourself that what happened to you isn’t an indicator of how your future will go, and that you’re not helpless. You may not be able to change a highly stressful event, but you can change how you interpret and respond to it.
SELF-DISCOVERY
Read....Parents: 30 Journal Prompts for Kids to Aid Self-Discovery
Journaling is a great way for kids to practice their literary skills and explore their emotions. Whether you like the idea of creating a gratitude journal or simply using a journal to inspire creativity, these fun prompts are an easy way to get started.
ACCEPTANCE
Read....Positive Psychology: How To Build Self-Acceptance - 16 Tip, Activities & Exercises
Self-acceptance is the ability to see oneself as a whole human that includes virtues and flaws. It is valuing the self regardless of accomplishment or failure. It is the ability to effectively learn from mistakes, rather than allowing them to internally disrupt psychological wellbeing.
POSITIVITY
Read....Psycom: Resilience in Children: Strategies to Strengthen Your Kids
Promote the Bright Side—Every Experience Has One. Optimism and resiliency go hand in hand. Some kids may appear more naturally optimistic than others, but optimism can be nurtured. If you have a mini pessimist on your hands, acknowledge the feelings that lead to pessimistic thinking and teach your child to reframe his thoughts to find the positive.
SELF-CARE
Talk to your child to introduce the concept of self-care and explore what types of activities they’d like to include in their routine. Creating a routine of self-care activities that they look forward to doing is key to encouraging them to place their mental health first!
HOPE
Read....Alliance for Hope: Dr. Seuss, Resilience, and the Science of HOPE
Hope is the belief that your future can be better than your past and you play a role in making it so. Hope refers to our ability to develop pathways (waypower) or mental strategies that will help us achieve our goals and apply our agency (willpower) to these pathways. Dr. Seuss had it right. It is all about our choices, goal setting, and goal achievement before, during, and after adversity.