Resilience – Basics
Fall-Down-Get-Up – All One Word
Here’s the link to an absolutely delightful – and instructive – 6 minute video Oy Vey to a New Way by Naomi Newman, brilliant co-founder of the Traveling Jewish Theater. Naomi teaches that fall-down-get-up is one word, one action, a seamless response to the difficulties and disasters of life. Deep wisdom in delightfully inspiring theater. […]
Anchors Rather than Answers
No one knows for sure when this pandemic will be over. When it will be safe to eat out, get your hair cut, visit friends without masks, attend a live football game or a live concert, when students can sit in a classroom with fellow students again. For some, coping with so many uncertainties and […]
Stability and Sea Change
So much about resilience is the nimble dance between being stable – secure, grounded, resourced – and flexible – able to shift, pivot, change our minds, change course. As we see in my 84 year-old friend Bev, sharing a lifelong love of literature with her long-time book club, 5 going-strong seniors now meeting monthly outdoors […]
We Make a Decision…and Then They Change the Rules
A common lament these days… we finally make a decision once and for all – about sending our kids back to school this fall for hybrid learning – two days in the classroom, two days home for online learning – or keeping them home altogether for online learning only, or even weighing the possibilities of […]
Finding an Upward Spiral of Resilience – Even in the Hardest of Times
While researching Barbara Frederickson’s suggestions for a media diet [see Information Overload – Dealing with the Deluge Wisely], I re-discovered her “toolkit” from her book Positivity: Discover the Upward Spiral that Will Change Your Life. Excellent suggestions, all very doable and very relevant to resilience. May they be helpful to you and yours. 1. Be […]
Decision Fatigue
“Decision fatigue,” my friend Stacey said the other day. “Will schools be open in the fall? Is it safe to take the kids to the beach? Should I try to see my dentist now or wait a little bit longer?” It’s our powerful higher brain that makes our decisions all day long – weighing options, […]
When Bending with the Wind Becomes a Full 180-Degree Pivot
At the very moment the order to shelter in place came down in mid-March, Roshi Joan Halifax “hermetically sealed” Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico and “flipped” an in-person chaplaincy training that was scheduled to start in 48 hours to an entirely online format. 60 students now participating in a community of wise […]
Wellness Tips for Shelter-in-Place – Especially with Children
Another direct pass-through from mental health professionals, this one geared toward families sheltering together during the pandemic. Many, many practical and immediately useful suggestions. To use now, to archive for a rainy day. WELLNESS TIPS FOR QUARANTINE DURING THE PANDEMIC Provided by Kaiser Crisis Line manager, Priscilla Schlottman, LCSW and Updated by Catholic Charities Incident […]
Six Daily Questions to Ask Yourself in Quarantine
Another direct pass-through of six practical, wise, helpful suggestions from Brooke Anderson and Greater Good Science Center: As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, and efforts to “flatten the curve” through physical distancing intensify, many of us find ourselves quarantined at home. The physical isolation and sudden departure from familiar routines can be jarring and disorienting. Settling […]
Resilience Is Always Needed
Resilience is always needed. The current pandemic of COVID-19 is a new disease, and a deadly one. So far unpreventable, untreatable. It’s easy to be scared and wise to be concerned. Resilience – capacities to deal with any stress and bounce back from any adversity – is as necessary to our well-being as the new […]