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:
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
True story. Powerful metaphor for resilience and recovery from the most devastating of circumstances.
August 9, 2021
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”
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
Cultivating equanimity to hold the yin-yang, ups and downs, of the human condition.
July 29, 2021
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:
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.”
Just One Thing
Weekly postings of simple practices that, repeated over time, bring more joy, more fulfilling relationships, more peace of mind.
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
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
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
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