Resilience for Right Now…and for the Long Haul
Resilience – capacities to cope with any distress and bounce back from any adversity – whether the shutdown of the coronavirus pandemic, an immediate threat to health or security, the long-term impact of racial injustice and social inequity – is foundational to our survival and our well-being.
Here are suggestions for immediate resources to strengthen your coping skills and strategies, and to deepen your trust that you can cope with anything, anything at all.
Some suggestions are very practical and immediate, some more for the long haul. There are many additional tools and exercises, audio recordings and video interviews freely available elsewhere on www.lindagraham-mft.net. And links below to others’ resources as well, an abundance of support. Dive in and thrive.
For right now:
When Solid Ground Turns to Quicksand
Years ago, I jumped out of a rowboat in shallow water into what I thought would be solid ground. Instead I unknowingly jumped into quicksand, and the pull of the muck, pulling me down deeper into the water, with no firm solid ground to push off from, was instantly and completely terrifying…
September 29, 202
We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know…We Don’t Even Know That We Don’t Know
We’re in a time of re-awakening – again – to the struggles and contributions of people whose history we don’t know, never knew, knew and have forgotten or denied. it’s humbling to realize how much we don’t know, how much we don’t know THAT we don’t know.
September 23, 2020
Anchors Rather Than Answers
No one knows for sure when this pandemic will be over. Anchors are what keep people from drifting into malaise or despair when the normal markers of a life have gone missing.
September 8, 2020
Trees – The Iconic Metaphors for Resilience
Grass pushing up through concrete has always been such a powerful, universal symbol of resilience. Trees manifest that same spirit of life surviving and thriving under the most difficult of circumstances.
September 3, 2020
When You Find You’re Weary…
Most everyone is getting a bit weary these days. And poets still offer their lessons, from all of these struggles, in endurance, perseverance, determination, grit.
August 27, 2020
One Petunia, One Voice, One Huge Redemptive Truth
Some days, when I get overwhelmed, I focus on just one petunia blooming in my garden. Not the whole garden. One petunia, blooming its heart out, manifesting the miraculous life force of all the petunias in the world.
July 13, 2020
For a little more depth and breadth:
Flattened by the News of the World…Revived by the Wonder of the Natural World
Everyone in this world is struggling right now to keep their head above water, searching for solid ground in the chaos and hope despite the news of new challenges, new catastrophes every day. We can find renewed buoyancy in wonder and reverence for the beauty (and fierceness) of the natural world.
October 9, 2020
Coping with What We're Instinctively
Afraid Of
It’s important to me to learn more about the Instinctive “othering” that our brains are hard-wired by evolution to do, and learn to train my brain to overcome that “othering” when I’m encountering my fellow human beings.
October 7, 2020
The Crisis of the Moment Grabs Our Attention – We Lose the Big Picture
Our attention focuses sharply when we sense imminent danger. When the danger eases, our attention eases, too, returning to what is more normal without even noticing the shift.
October 1, 2020
My Grandmother’s Hands
The New York Times best-seller My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Hearts and Bodies is one of the best books on trauma ever, especially about the multi-generational transmission of trauma.
August 24, 2020
I’m Hiding, Please See Me; Unmasking Shame
Excerpts and exercises from Dr. Nikki Rollo’s excellent article on healing shame.
August 17, 2020
Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not
A deft and delicate balance of truths – scathing and uplifting at the same time – in the September 2020 Atlantic by Imani Perry, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University.
August 10, 2020
We Make a Decision…and Then They Change the Rules
A common lament these days…
July 27, 2020
Let This Young Black Woman’s Voice Be the One You Listen to Today
Christabel Nunoo gives voice to the truth of the pain and anger of young black men and women today.
June 24, 2020
The Whole Debacle in Less than 15 Seconds
Relating resiliently to just one person at a time can be hard; negotiating relationships between groups of people can be even harder.
June 22, 2020
Resilience 2.0: Compassion, Clarity, and Courage…
Resilience is foundational to shifting our responses to danger and life threat, to changing our world when the very fabric of that world is threatened.
Ongoing
The Hard Issues the Pandemic Is Back Burnering
The coronavirus pandemic has back-burnered many other social-political-health issues for the time being, perhaps rightfully so, but sadly so.
May 26, 2020
ABC’s of Working with Difficult Emotions
Just daily living evokes many emotions throughout the day anyway, and especially in a time of great disruption and change like the current pandemic, we experience some emotion or another every single moment of the day.
May 15, 2020
Free Guided Practices
Creating a Coherent Narrative
Sometimes we do have to cope with serious sorrows and struggles that break our hearts and sometimes break our spirits. And…whatever happened has its place in your life, but it doesn’t have to determine the rest of your life.
September 28, 2020
Seeing the Goodness That Others
See In You
These days when we get flummoxed or weary or discouraged, we can lose track of our own strengths, our base of resilience, our own goodness. Claiming this inner goodness, through self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-appreciation, is key to recovering your resilience.
September 21, 2020
Identifying Traits /Symbols of Resilience
We all need to know what traits of resilience we already have and to claim ourselves as resilient when we exhibit those traits. This double-awareness strengthens our resilience and nourishes our sense of self as someone who is and can be resilient.
September 14, 2020
Quick Links to other experts' excellent offerings:
Sleep Your Way to Health…
and Better Coping
Excellent tips for the good night’s sleep we need to face the details, let alone the difficulties, of daily living and coping.
October 8, 2020
Now More than Ever…Inspiration from the Arts
Music and dance have explored and expressed every facet of human life – deep joys, sorrows, struggles and triumphs – ever since there has been human life on this planet. Not a luxury, but rich re-Sourcing in the most challenging as well as the most ebullient of times.
Ongoing
Greater Good Science Center
Resilience and Coping
Ongoing
For the deeper, broader perspective:
Webinar
Strengthening Resilience in these Challenging Times of the Pandemic, Racial Injustice, and Social Inequity
Sponsored Marin CAMFT (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists)
September 19, 2020
Full one hour forty minute webinar
(live Q&A edited out for confidentiality and privacy requirements)
Section 1 – 25 minutes
Marin CAMFT introduction and Processes of Resilience
Section 2 – 25 minutes
Tools to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and to cultivate a resilience mindset for the long haul
Section 3 – 40 minutes
The realities of long-standing racial injustice, social/economic inequity, the inter-sectionality of all forms of “othering” and oppression; tools to take responsibility for us v. them and shame-blame
Section 4 – 7 minutes
Moving beyond resilience for the personal self to resilience in the fabric of the larger society
Virtual Lunch Together: Linda Graham and Michael Kerman
Leading Edge Seminars, Toronto, Canada
One-hour video interview, April 1, 2020
Online Course
Especially in times of rapid change and uncertainty, we need to learn the strategies and deepen the underlying practices that allow us to cope with any disappointment, any difficulty, and any disaster. And to learn that we can.
Podcasts
Resilience – to Cope with Anything, Anything at All
Veteran’s PATH
One-hour video podcast with Jon Macaskill, Navy SEAL commander turned mindfulness teacher, director of Veteran’s PATH
May 14, 2020
Bouncing Back Like a Skilled Ninja
Full Pre-Frontal: Exploring the Mysteries of Executive Function
One-hour interview Linda Graham with Sucheta Kamath, CEO of Cerebral Matters,
April 10, 2020
One hour interview Linda Graham with Michelle Chalfant,
March 20, 2020
Video Interviews
Jonah Paquette, PhD
Remembering What Really Matters Strengthens Our Resilience
Christine Carter, PhD
The Need for Resilience Is Not a Surprise: Make Your “If/Then” Plans
Ron Siegal, PhD
Why Some People Bounce Back Quickly, Even Heroically
Elisha Goldstein, PhD
Tara Brach, PhD
Loving Awareness in the Present Moment Is Foundational to Our Resilience
Christopher Germer, PhD