Topic 2: Attitude - Making Meaning
Topic Overview
Gaining
an understanding of how our physiology and psychology come together and
interact can itself be a source of strength and resilience. This understanding
assists us in better understanding how our thoughts, words, beliefs, and
interactions with others and our environment impact us physiologically.
We identify our feelings based in large part on the information our body
provides. Watch the following video:
Even though we cannot always make our life stresses go away, we can learn to manage our responses to them. We will explore some of our responses in this next section.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session, participants will have:
- Explored the role played by sensations and perceptions in peoples’ interpretations of stressful situations.
- Assessed their own resilience quotient some of our responses in this next section.
Readings and Research
Context
The information below will provide background about how different viewpoints and one’s own nature can affect a person’s approach to any given situation. The material which constitutes the core course is identified with an asterisk; if you move into the expanded course material, please be ready to spend more time.
Involuntary Response Presentations:
* The Four Fs (allow time to load)
* Stress: Your Brain and Body
Brain Rule #8
How We Interpret Things:
Learning Activities
Activity 1 - Revisiting the Survivors
Context
In the information you have read, you discovered that a person’s perceptions and sensations can cause them to approach situations differently. This next activity will give you further experience in the importance of this concept.
Task Description
- Take time to view an annual updates of our survivors.
- Reflect back on your reactions from the initial videos.
- Did this new information make any difference in your view of that person’s resilience?
- Join your fellow participants in discussing what you learned and what qualities you think the office should look for in a new IT/phone/billing clerk. If you are working independently, reflect on whether your initial assessment was valid. What qualities should Marge look for in a new billing clerk that would round out the team?
One Year Later...
Dr. Maria—Still owns clinic; now has 2nd child; continues to
run every morning and still gets little sleep; committed to
work but looking for more time to spend with her growing family
PA Robert—Still dealing with home repairs from the
tornado; grateful that in-laws still talking to his family even after extended stay during
home repairs; knee fully recovered; little tornado now brown belt; oldest son
active in CERT (citizen emergency response team)
Office Manager Marge—increased social connections in
neighborhood so less stressed about mom and dogs when she is at work; still
trying to fine-tune COOP plan after lessons learned from tornado
Billing and IT Jim—Left office and still
looking for meaningful employment where he will get paid for all tasks
he does; left gaping hole in the back-end servicing of phones and computers at clinic;
office manager looking for replacement but working to identify traits
that would make a better fit
Office Receptionist Jason— Continuing coffee meetings with original cohort group though a few have moved on; did get co-workers to join him in afternoon yoga once a week, which improved Robert's knee recovery and helped lessen Dr. Maria's stress levels
Activity 2 - Personal Resilience
“Each day deliberately give yourself permission to succeed and to stumble – true and lasting change is made up of both.”
Context
You have created a foundation for this next activity by practicing your skills at identifying resilience characteristics. As you have just learned, people develop different aspects of themselves at different rates. Being less resilient at some points in your life and more resilient at others is normal and human. Additionally, someone can be intellectually agile and yet be emotionally stuck. You can be more patient at home than at work. Basically, you can have areas in yourself and in your life where you are more resilient, or feel stronger, than in others. A clear, honest, and kind self-assessment is the first and most important stage of resilience. These truths are valid at the organizational and community level as well.
Task Description
Download and complete the following assessment to discover your own resilience quotient. [self-assessment]
Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, select the following buttons to locate information about how to strengthen areas needing further attention.
Prescriptions for Resilience
Click on the buttons below or download a printable copy for your own files.
Friends
- Allow yourself to experience strong emotions while also identifying when you need to temporarily shelve them in order to keep functioning. Rely on others, which gives them permission to rely on you. Know when to do both/either.
- Talk things and feelings over. Seek out support groups in person and online.
- It is not necessary to watch every video in order to grasp the fundamental concepts. Be aware of the amound of time you wish to spend, but be warned - these are VERY intersting videos.
- http://video.pbs.org/video/1274855067/
- http://video.pbs.org/video/1374088619/
- http://video.pbs.org/video/1376654831/
Humor
- Laugh a lot
- Talk things and feelings over. Seek out support groups in person
and online.
(The same caveat about videos applies here.) - http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/
- http://www.cylive.com/viewContent.do?id=18119
Exercise and Rest
- Seek balance between action and rest. Listen to your body - engaging in a physical activity is great for releasing tension and can help prepare us for rest. Listen to what your body needs. Studies indicate there is benefit in a single episode of exercise: Increased positive well-being and energy after 30 minutes; Do not have to do 30 minutes of exercise all at once: can do 10 minutes in the morning, noon, and evening with the same effect. Practice the activities that work for you - yoga for example
- Find a physical outlet for tension that has been building all day; this will help prepare you for rest.
- http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_relief_meditation_yoga_relaxation.htm
- Increase it.
- This allows you to be present “in the moment.” Therefore you can observe your emotions rather than responding to them. Respect your feelings rather than being controlled by them.
- Alternate between taking action and resting. This is a great opportunity to learn to listen to your body; resting your body and mind can be essential —listen to what your body needs.
- http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_4397939_importance-getting-rest.html
Family
- Spend time with loved ones. Be gentle with your expectations. Total engagement family and friends, can help us disengage from, and gain perspective about, the emergency and crisis response work. Make sure this is a priority.
- Establish ways to let your family know you are safe and they are safe—establish an out of state contact (friend or relative) in the event of a large-scale disaster. Make sure everyone knows how to use text messaging. Put I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency) in the cell phone directory for each family member of your family (www.icecontact.com). Develop and practice an evacuation plans with your family, friends and pets. Create scenarios to address: House fire, Community Disasters.
- Store documents, photographs and keepsakes in a box that is: Portable, Fire-resistant, Waterproof including: Bank and investment accounts, credit and debit card information, insurance policies, homeowner’s insurance policies, health insurance (policy numbers, prescriptions, serial numbers for durable medical equipment), and social security numbers, passports, and drivers’ licenses.
- http://www.readycolorado.com; http://www.fema.gov; http://samhsa.gov; http://redcross.org (Family Disaster Plan); http://www.pandemicflu.gov; http://www.nationalterroralert.com/evacuation-plan (The National Terror Alert Response Center has several different Response Guides)
Work
- Respect for and care about the energy, passion, and commitment we all bring to the work. Acknowledge that we have limits. We do not have an inexhaustible supply of passion, caring, and commitment. We can set boundaries to protect ourselves from over exposure to others’ pain.
- Keep expectations realistic. Perfectionism increases rigid thinking—it blinds us from beneficial but not perfect courses of action; “We do the best we can with the knowledge and resources wehave at the time.”
- http://video.pbs.org/video/1374088608/
Nutrition
- The concept of balance reinforces the importance of balanced nutrition—“what we eat and drink affects how we think and feel.”
- http://www.uhs.uga.edu/stress/nutrition.html
- http://www.theheart.org/article/767037.doc
- http://www.heartcentral.info/
Get-Aways
Rest
- Increase it.
- This allows you to be present “in the moment.” Therefore you can observe your emotions rather than responding to them. Respect your feelings rather than being controlled by them.
- Alternate between taking action and resting. This is a great opportunity to learn to listen to your body; resting your body and mind can be essential —listen to what your body needs.
- http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_4397939_importance-getting-rest.html
Spirituality
- Commitment—Be engaged in your life and the relationships, experiences and events that make up your daily life. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Have a sense of purpose that is set enough for consistency yet malleable enough to incorporate new learning.
- Challenge—Choose to view difficult situations and experiences as growth opportunities. Try to view difficulties as growth opportunities; difficulties do not have to be observed as THREATS but a stimulus for growth. Often we need to separate challenges into pieces in order to overcome them.
- Recognize the locus of control (internal/external) most appropriate to the situation - AA Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.”
- We are more vulnerable when we try to avoid our emotions. Emotions provide rapid messages to us about our environment and our interactions within that environment. They communicate messages to you regarding appropriate behavior in a current situation based on memories of past experience. When we ignore these messages, they do not go away. They tend to remain under the surface building until something happens that we can no longer ignore. http://video.pbs.org/video/1374092401/
- “Both hope and optimism can contribute to resilience because they
are future oriented. People who feel hopeful and optimistic increase
their chances of bouncing back and may make things even better than
before. Hope is what people have. Optimism is what people believe. Coping is an interactive process, different for each individual,
in which a person keeps learning how to be better at handling difficult
physical, mental, and emotional challenges. Resilient people combine
them all.”
Source: Al Siebert, “The Resilience Advantage,” 2005.
Team
- As flight attendants say on the airplane, “Put your mask on before attempting to assist others.” We cannot effectively help others if we do not take care of ourselves.
- Keep expectations realistic; create a manageable workload for all. Provide real opportunities for employees to exert more control over their work environment. This will increase employee satisfaction and the organization’s access to creativity and commitment.
- Provide opportunities for training and professional development. Offer training to all managers and reward those that are effective - be clear about what constitutes “effective.” Develop disaster preparedness plan and drill on the plan frequently.
- https://intranet.secure.griffith.edu.au/security-safety-emergency/griffith-safe-well
- Acknowledge the multiple dimensions of employees lives—foster work-personal life integration. Allow venting of emotions, which can be a useful process to assist us in moving material from the emotional part of the brain into the parts of the brain designed for problem-solving, planning and discussion.
- Leadership must model honest, consistent, respectful and forthright communication; encourage feedback and positively reinforce comments when received. Everyone should recognize informal means of communication as effective avenues to share information in an emergency.
- Have a clear mission, vision, objectives and goals —communicate these to all stakeholders and include them in the development; nurture a healthy organizational culture by encouraging a sense of belonging and community.
- http://www.braunconsulting.com/bcg/newsletters/winter2004/winter20044.html
Energy Assessment
You might also be interested in this energy self-assessment and blog site:
self-assessment
http://www.theenergyproject.com/tools/the-energy-audit
the blog post:
http://www.danpink.com/archives/2010/06/solving-your-personal-energy-crisis