How is it that in a similar situation, some people handle challenges, stress and pressure brilliantly, for example, and others do not? This question is especially important now, when such big changes have caught up with us, there is no shortage of stress, and there is no certainty about how long it will last and what it will end up being.
Strawberries in late spring.
And here comes the foreign-sounding word “resilience,” or the ability to cope with a crisis situation and the ability to recover quickly from difficult events. More in Polish it would be mental resilience, but I will stay with resilience, because that is also the title of a very interesting book that, not by complete coincidence, fell into my hands and can help anyone develop that. The title alone: Resilience. How to shape a foundation of peace, strength and happiness, is for those interested in self-development, as tempting as the first Polish fragrant strawberries in late spring.
Plasticity of our mind.
Due to our high resilience, we are able to efficiently adapt to changing conditions, adapt in relation to the environment, and become resilient. Resilience is the plasticity of our mind and the ability to recover weakened or lost strength. Taking the Latin root rezyliencia means the ability to rebound, to bounce back.
I reached for the book by Rick Hanson and his son Forrest in connection with Kingmakers’ preparation of programs to support leaders. We all agreed that one of the great needs, both now during the pandemic and later, is (and will be) to strengthen immunity. That’s why we offer leaders
resilience coaching
– that is, coaching directed at building and/or strengthening a leader’s own resilience, but also at supporting members of his or her team in their journey to build and maintain resilience.
Building Resilience.
Hanson’s book is one of the sources we as Kingmakers want to draw from, because it fits perfectly with our approach to thinking about building our own mental resources, but also supporting others to be more agile and resilient when they act in the face of various difficulties. On top of that, Rick Hanson (author of another excellent book: The Happy Brain) very skillfully uses various neuroscience discoveries to help readers develop the desired habits. Of course, some of us are already born with high levels of resilience, but the good news is that those who inherited “less resistant genes” from their ancestors can learn resilience, just like any other skill. Building resilience, is a bit like wrapping yourself in a newspaper, a single layer will not change anything, but already a dozen or so pages, stuffed under a sweatshirt, is great to protect you from the wind during a fast bike ride (tested on the Green Velo route), and a few hundred pages, is supposedly able to stop a pistol bullet (however, no – I just checked that a 19-year-old youtuber shot her boyfriend this way, so better not try it at home).
Positive neuroplasticity.
Rick Hanson shows in his book how to develop 12 key mental competencies for resilience. He devotes one chapter to each competency, and while I usually swallow books like a box of Bird’s Milk (passionately and one at a time), I just happened to savor this book, carving out one chapter a day for myself, which allowed me to think about and consolidate the content, and record and listen to some of the exercises on my walk. Rick Hanson believes that you can change your brain for the better using positive neuroplasticity. First: by experiencing what we want to develop, and second: by transforming these transient experiences into a permanent change in the nervous system. If what I’ve written so far doesn’t encourage you to take an interest in Resilience because you’re not a “goal-oriented” person and you’re more convinced by the “from the problem” approach, let me add that according to the author of Resilience, “Most of people’s beneficial experiences are wasted in the brain.” What a shame…
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