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:
Karuna-Virus: Compassionate Connection and Radical Change
Ernest Skelton, an appliance technician, arrived at Caroline Brock’s home for a routine service call in Myrtle Beach, SC expecting to do his job and leave. However, when Brock, a white woman, asked Skelton what his experience was as a Black man living in the USA, the encounter was anything but routine.
July 14, 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
Tiny Glimmers of Joy and Love Build Resilience, Too
Just when I was feeling a little bit more than weary….
July 1, 2020
Finding an Upward Spiral of Resilience…Even in the Hardest of Times
Practical and doable suggestions from Barbara Frederickson’s positivity toolkit
July 16, 2020
Decision Fatigue
Our brain, our CEO of resilience, can get fatigued when it has been coping with dilemmas and making decisions all day.
July 15, 2020
Love in Action
Enduring the sheltering in place is still “love in action.”
July 6, 2020
Free Guided Practice – Create a Resource of Safety Before the Flak Hits the Fan
We can create many resources for resilience as we go through our days, imagining and rehearsing them ahead of time
July 30, 2020
Free Guided Practice – How You Respond to the Issue…Is the Issue
I teach how you respond to the issue…is the issue all the time because it is true, all the time. And then I teach how to shift our responses to any issue…
July 20, 2020
Recovering from Feeling Badly about Less-than-Resilient Coping
Use guided imagination to radically re-frame your view of yourself in moment of less-than-proud-of behaviors and less-than-resilient coping.
June 10, 2020
For a little more depth and breadth:
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
What Makes Some People More Resilient Than Others – Resilience for the Long Haul
Excellent recommendations from research in trauma, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. From New York Times, June 21, 2020.
June 29, 2020
Othering Is Everywhere
The evolutionary, neurobiological underpinnings of “us v. them” and resources to radically over-ride that programming.
June 17, 2020
Am I Doing Enough Right Now?
How we find the energy, the resilience, the determination to stay on course, working diligently to bring more equality, opportunity, justice to this complex country of ours.
June 15, 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
Quick Links to other experts' excellent offerings:
Sounds True
Healing Racism: Embracing Diversity in Our Personal Lives, Our Communities, Our World
3-part series
Diversity and Inclusivity
Excellent resources from Oren Jay Sofer to resiliently and effectively learn and practice diversity and inclusivity in the face of the divisions and hostilities so evident right now in our common human enterprise.
June 18, 2020
Internationally revered meditation teacher Tara Brach has posted her own Anti-Racism Resources page with many excellent guided meditations
Ongoing
CPR for the Amygdala
The links here provide the most accessible introductions I have found to the simple yet powerful tools of “havening” and “rhythms of regulation” to be-friend and calm the nervous system.
July 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.
July 10, 2020
Greater Good Science Center
Resilience and Coping
Ongoing
For the deeper, broader perspective:
Webinar
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
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