A couple of weeks ago, we got to spend the afternoon learning about developing resilience in an engaging training session with Becky Wright from New Leaf Life Design.
New Leaf Life Design is a Bridgwater-based organisation that offers a professional, confidential counselling and coaching service for businesses and their employees. Launched in 1992 by owner and counsellor Becky Wright, New Leaf is founded on enabling people to flourish by overcoming the issues that can affect their working life, their relationships, personal well-being and the ability to contribute positively to their community.
At the start of the session we discussed the different meanings and connotations of the word resilience, with the dictionary describing it as, “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.”
Resilience is important for many reasons. It enables us to develop strategies for protection against overwhelming experiences, it helps us to maintain balance in our lives during difficult or stressful periods, and it can protect us from the development of some mental health problems in the future.
In the session Becky not only highlighted the importance of being resilient and adaptable in everyday life and how it can play a huge role in how we feel, but she also discussed the benefits of having a strong and supportive network around us and how we each have our own ‘life anchors’ to help us to feel connected and grounded.
We’d like to thank Becky for sharing her knowledge and her inspiring attitude. We thoroughly enjoyed the session and every team member came away feeling confident, positive and ready to become resilient!
Here are some of Becky’s top tips from the training session:
Becky’s 8 top resilience tips:
- Practice thought awareness
Resilient people don’t let negative thoughts get in the way of their efforts. Instead, they consistently practice positive thinking. A way to do this is by observing how you talk to yourself when something goes wrong – if you find yourself making negative statements that are permanent or personalised, correct these thoughts in your mind.
- Practice cognitive restructuring
Cognitive restructuring is a useful technique for understanding unhappy feelings and moods, and for challenging the sometimes wrong “automatic beliefs” that can lie behind them. As such, you can use it to reframe the unnecessary negative thinking that we all experience from time to time.
- Learn from your mistakes and failures
Every mistake has the power to teach you something important; so, don’t stop searching until you’ve found the lesson in every situation. Also, try and familiarise yourself with the idea of “post-traumatic growth” as there is real truth in the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
- Choose your response
Remember, everyone experiences bad days, but we all have a choice in how we respond. We can choose to react negatively or in a panic, or we can choose to remain calm and logical to find a solution – reaction is key.
- Maintain perspective
Resilient people understand that although a situation or crisis may seem overwhelming in the moment, it may not make that much of a difference in the long-term.
- Build your self confidence
Resilient people are confident that they’re going to succeed eventually, despite any setbacks or stresses. This belief enables them to take risks and have a strong sense of self, which provides the strength to keep moving forward.
- Develop strong relationships with your colleague
Those with strong connections at work are more resistant to stress and are often happier in their role. This also applies to your personal life as the more real friendships you develop, the more resilient you will be because you have a strong support network to rely on.
- Focus on being flexible
Resilient people understand that things change and therefore we must be able to adapt well.
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