The four days resilience challenge!
In this exercise each day you will get a different component of Resilience to reflect upon, answer certain questions and include thoughts of some other people as well. So try to be honest with yourself while answering these questions. Try to observe and look at things from a bit different perspective.
And on the fourth day, we will make your Resilience plan which can help you in all the days to come
Day one – Resilient thinking
Think about current, recent, or past challenging and difficult situations, events, or periods from your life. Try to connect with the thoughts, emotions, and body sensations you experience at the moment while you think about it. At the same time be aware that is just a mental experiment, you are in total control while thinking about it.
Try to answer these questions which might give you a different look, meaning, or perspective on your experience, be open to looking at things from a bit different angle.
Try answering these questions:
- How have I changed and grown out of this experience?
- Which are the lessons I have learned?
- What do I know about myself now which I didn’t know before?
- Do I have any ideas, wishes, thoughts about how moving forward should look like?
Day two – Managing emotions
Think about current, recent or past challenging and difficult situation, event or period from your life. Try to connect with the thoughts, emotions and body sensations you experience at the moment while you think about it. At the same time be aware that is just a mental experiment, you are in total control while thinking about it.
Try answering these questions:
- Which are the unpleasant emotions I am dealing with at the moment when I connect with my experience?
- What helps me to do when I feel these emotions?
- What else can I do in order to be more accepting of these emotions?
Day three – Effective relationships
Think about an important person in your life that has been loving and accepting you exactly the way you are. Think about his/her character traits, behaviour, situations, and experiences you went through together…It can be a family member, friend, partner, teacher, mentor… or even if you can think of someone specific try imagining how this person should be like.
Try answering these questions:
- Who is this person and which are his traits that I really admire and look up to?
- Why is this relationship important to me?
- How am I contributing to making this relationship strong and meaningful?
Day four – Building on strengths
Find 4 friends/family members/colleagues/… Who knows you very well and for some time. Ask each one of them to name 5 traits/strengths about you that they really like and admire about you.
Try answering these questions:
- How do you feel after hearing their thoughts about you?
- How much the traits that they mentioned resonate with how you see yourself?
- What do you think which are the most significant 5 strengths that you possess?
“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”
Elizabeth Edwards
