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Resilience for Right Now…and for the Long Haul

Resilience for Right Now…and for the Long Haul

Linda Graham

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:

Life Is in the Transitions

Life Is in the Transitions

How people actually shift identities and mindsets in times of accelerated transitions

August 12, 2021

The Tree That Survived 9/11 – A Poignant Symbol of Resilience and Hope

The Tree That Survived 9/11

True story. Powerful metaphor for resilience and recovery from the most devastating of circumstances.

August 9, 2021

The Perils of Being Co-Opted

The Perils of Being Co-Opted

The quandary of wanting to live a good, integrous, contributory life, yet hesitant to risk the comforts and privileges we’ve become accustomed to.

August 5, 2021

Energy v. Entropy – Another Pandemic Paradox

Feeling eager and excited to return to “real life” as we emerge from the pandemic, yet feeling hesitant and kind of poopy, too.

April 12, 2021

Holding Heartache and Hope

A simple practice for holding both heartache and hope, or any of the paradoxes of these challenging times, grief and gratitude, sorrow and serenity.

April 5, 2021

Emerging S-l-o-w-l-y from the Pandemic

Like a turtle sticking its head out of its shell to see if the world is safe now…

April 1, 2021

The Myth of Sisyphus Revisited

How to chunk down the tasks and get help with the burdens of life during shutdown

March 29, 2021

Postponing Grief during the Pandemic

Oops. So busy coping, forgot to grieve. Here’s how to make time and room for

March 25, 2021

Emerging from the Pandemic – the Prevalence of Paradox

Expanding our use of both/and to handle the contradictions and paradoxes of the endemic ending…sort of.

March 22, 2021

“I Have the Power to Make Wise Choices”

“I Have the Power to Make Wise Choices”

All of us, even young children, can use mindfulness to notice what’s happening and make a wise choice of what to do about it

August 2, 2021

Awe and Ache

Awe and Ache

Cultivating equanimity to hold the yin-yang, ups and downs, of the human condition.

July 29, 2021

The Privilege of Innocence

The Privilege of Innocence

How to stay woke and “fight the forgetting.” How to make a difference in our world without overwhelm, live in compassion without burnout.

July 26, 2021

For a little more depth and breadth:

Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference

Two physicians have compiled the data that makes the case: compassion improves patient care, provider well-being, and the medical system’s bottom line. With compelling stories that make the data come alive.

March 22, 2021

Unlearning and Rethinking: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

Learning how to unlearn and rethink in a rapidly changing and increasingly divisive world can be as necessary as learning to learn and think in the first place.

February 22, 2021

Vulner-ability: a Path through Compassion to Resilience

Experiencing vulnerability to pain and suffering can crack our hearts open more powerfully than anything else in our personal and collective experience. Resilience is a direct, measurable, cause and effect outcome of compassion in response to vulnerability and suffering.

February 11, 2021

Free Guided Practices

Sharing Kindness

This 7-minute guided practice helps you cultivate more curiosity and engagement with the world; it helps you deepen social bonds, become more optimistic, and build enduring resources for more creative coping. So very, very essential right now.

October 26, 2020

Overcoming Us vs Them

This 4-minute video leads you through one powerfully effective practice for rewiring any conditioned patterns of “othering,”  based on the work of diversity expert Shakhil Choudhury in Deep Diversity: Overcoming Us v. Them.  It’s easily applicable to rewiring any conditioned pattern of unconscious bias, any pattern at all.

October 19, 2020

Creating a Circle of Support

Here’s a 6-minute video offering two practices to help you both find and offer that support, right here, right now…and for the long haul.

October 12, 2020

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:

middle-aged Indian woman

Karuna News

Karuna is the Sanskrit word for compassion. Weekly postings of stories of everyday heroism and kindness from around the world.

“In such times, love must rise again.”

older person comforting a younger person

Just One Thing

Weekly postings of simple practices that, repeated over time, bring more joy, more fulfilling relationships, more peace of mind. 

A child holding a small potted tree to plant

Daily Good

Daily postings of world news that inspires action and positive change.

Keeping the Heart and Mind Open in Times of Suffering

Tara Brach provides many excellent resources for cultivating compassion, kindness, and goodwill during the most challenging of times.

Ongoing

holding their head in thought

Change Your Mind: How to Have More Thoughts That Help and Fewer That Hurt

Dr. Rick Hanson’s new course in how to revise the assumptions and attitudes that cause misery in ourselves and in our relationships.

Greater Good Science Center 

Resilience and Coping

Ongoing

For the deeper, broader perspective:

Online Course

Resilience 2.0

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.

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

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

Resilience in Turbulent Times

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

Resilience Is a Verb

Tara Brach, PhD

Loving Awareness in the Present Moment Is Foundational to Our Resilience

Christopher Germer, PhD

The Yin-Yang of Mindful Self-Compassion

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