21st Century Survival skills

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Maine
Resilience
21st Century Survival Skills
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Webinar courtesy of
www.kidsterrain.com.
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(No Transcript)
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What is Resilience?
Module I
Re-sil-ience (ri-zil-yens) Resilience is the
process of adapting well in the face of
adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even
significant sources of stress. It means
bouncing back from difficult experiences. Americ
an Psychological Association
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What is Resilience?

• The process of coping with and managing tragedy
  and crises.
• It is bouncing back from hard times.
• The skills and attitudes that make us resilient
  may be more common than we thought.
• Skills and attitudes can be learned.

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Factors that make up resilience
Optimism Awareness of feelings Ability to
confront and deal with feelings
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Why Learn Resilience Skills?
Terrorism and War Natural Disasters
Personal Tragedies The Recession/ Depression
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Why Learn Resilience Skills?

• The Politics of Fear
• The Politics of Hope
• Help Others Build Resilience

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11 Factors that make for resilient people
Eleven Skills and Attitudes Common to Resilient
People 1. Being connected to others. 2
Being flexible in your thinking and in your
actions.
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11 Factors that make for resilient people
3. Being able to make realistic plans and take
action to carry them out. 4. Being able to
communicate well with others and problem-solve.
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11 Factors that make for resilient people

• 5. Being able to manage strong feelings.
• 6. Being self-confident.

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11 Factors that make for resilient people

• 7. Being able to find purpose and meaning in
  ones life.

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11 Factors that make for resilient people
8. Being able to explain events without using
- Permanence - Pervasiveness - Personal Blame
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11 Factors that make for resilient people

1. Being able to appreciate and use humor
   appropriately.
2. Being able to take care of yourself eg. diet,
   exercise, etc.
3. Being able to care for others physically and
   emotionally.
4. Others?

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Learning from your past.
Module II
Unless we learn from our history, we are
doomed to repeat it.
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Questions to think about...

• Writing can be a helpful process. Seeing answers
  in black and white is different from simply
  thinking about them.
• How have I managed stressful events in my life in
  the past?
• How did I deal with the feelings that came up?
• Did I talk with others about what was happening?

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Questions to think about...

• Who have been the role models in my life for
  dealing with adversity and hard times?
• What have I learned from them? Good and bad.

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Questions to think about...

• During hard times, how was I able to use my head?
• Was I able to think clearly and problem-solve in
  a crisis?
• Could I use my thinking to help manage my
  feelings?

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Questions to think about...

• How was I personally impacted by 911?
• Since 911, has my attitude toward others who are
  different from me by religious or race changed?
• If so, how?

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Learning resilience through storytelling.
Module III
We learn resilience by sharing stories about our
lives. From campfires to water coolers, we
continue to tell stories about resilience. Storie
s told through a novel or a movie are excellent
vehicles for teaching resilience.
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An exercise in Reaching Home
How would you apply resilience skills and
attitudes in the following situation?
The year is 2013. You are far from home and
alone. An explosion occurs at a Department of
Energy nuclear facility. Caught up in the
ensuing disaster, you are implicated in what is
mistakenly believed to be a terrorist plot. You
escape the local authorities and begin your
journey home. You must seek help from others in
order to reach home.
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Questions to ask yourself
If you were cut off from your support system,
whom would you seek assistance from? How would
you manage your feelings in this
situation? Would you attempt to help
others? Whom would you trust? How would you get
home?
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Reaching Home - the Maine Resilience Project
Reaching Home, a novel about conquering fear and
building resilience. Duct Tape Isnt Enough, a
Reader and Resilience Coaches Guide. The Maine
Resilience Project, teaching resilience through
storytelling. To learn more www.meresilience.org

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Whats your plan for building and maintaining
your resilience?
Module IV
Develop a plan, write it down and review it
periodically, e.g., the 1st Saturday in January,
April, July and October. Develop a readiness
kit. For more information visit www.ready.gov
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Building Resilience
Ask yourself How can I strengthen and build my
connection to others? Is my community a major
source of resilience for me?
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Building Resilience
How should I change my thinking? Can I learn to
be more optimistic? Am I willing to see things
in my life as temporary rather than
permanent? Am I willing to view what happens as
having a specific effect rather than a pervasive
effect on my life in general? How can I give up
the blame game while still being accountable and
holding others accountable for their actions?
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Building Resilience

• How can I take better care of myself each day?
• Diet
• Exercise
• How can I get things done today rather than
  putting them off to tomorrow?

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Building Resilience

• What are my goals for the future?
• Goals can push and pull us forward, especially in
  bad times.
• Create SMART Goals
• S Specific
• M Measurable
• A Attainable
• R Realistic
• T Time-specific

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Whats your plan for maintaining your resilience
while developing the skills of others?
Review the eleven factors/skills/attitudes that
make for resilience and answer the following
questions 1. What support network will you
utilize both in and outside of your
home/organization/institution? 2. How flexible
will you be? 3. Are your plans realistic?
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Whats your plan for maintaining your resilience
while developing the skills of others?
4. Will you take action? 5. With whom do you
need to open or increase communication? 6. What
feelings will you have about what you are doing?
How will you deal with them? 7. How
self-confident are you about the success you will
have with your project? Will doing this activity
build your self-confidence?
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Whats your plan for maintaining your resilience
while developing the skills of others?
8. Will doing this activity add meaning and
purpose to your life? 9. How will your level of
optimism or pessimism impact what you are doing?
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Application of Resilience Skills to Others
Module V
How will you integrate these skills into the
activities/projects you are presently
doing? What is your SMART plan for building the
resilience of others? Who do you need to sell
your project to and how will you do this?
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Resources
The American Psychological Association,
www.apahelpcenter.org Reaching Home, Duct Tape
Isnt Enough, Partners with Maine
Resilience www.reachinghome.com In the Wake of
911, the Psychology of Terror. Pyszczynski,
Solomon Greenberg, available through the
American Psychological Association Opening up
The healing Power of Confiding in Others, by
James Pennebaker, New York Avon Books, 1990
Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman, New York
Knopf, 1990 (first printing) Quiz, QA,
Evaluation and Follow-up Thank you