Personal Resilience Workshop

As with all Inner Transition workshops the  basic principles are that we learn best by a combination of receiving information that helps us understand more deeply  challenges and solutions, self and group reflection, listening to and hearing each other's experience and sharing our  own stories and experiences. Some of the areas covered by such a workshop might include :-

1. A group brainstorm around what personal resilience feels like when we have a good degree of it and what it feels like as it  diminishes.

2. A talk around the idea of Resources and a sharing and exploration of the  'resources' we personally have and can employ.

3. An exploration of what works and what doesn't work so well in our working relationships i.e. whats good and where we struggle e.g. boundaries and learning to name areas of difficulty before they escalate too far.

4. An understanding of the physiology of stress and what happens to us when stress overwhelms our capacity to resource ourselves. This is described very well in the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat Zinn.

5. The basic techniques of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and how these can significantly contribute to increased Personal Resilience if we are struggling.

Some Notes on Resources 

We can coin the term Resources to mean those things that support and contribute to personal resilience / well-being.  Resources operate at all levels of our engagement in life i.e. within ourselves and personal life, in our relationships and in our engagement with community. In other words to experience a strong sense of well-being a good number of these will be happening in our lives. Most of us will find we are able to naturally employ some without thinking about it and others will be more tricky. The following list is intended to give a flavour rather than be comprehensive.

 1. Personal qualities such as honesty, courage, playfulness, gratitude, wisdom, compassion, kindness, the capacity to  enjoy and appreciate others, curiosity, connection to our creativity, connectedness to the natural world, positive outlook  and a sense of meaning etc.

Tools :- Most of us have more of these qualities than we realise as we can tend to focus on what we are not. For all of us qualities such as these develop through our lives, through life experience and through the love and challenge of our relationships with others. Being involved in a TRansition Initiative is a rich learning ground!

 2. Personal skills such as the ability to to eat in a healthy, nourishing and enjoyable way; to exercise in ways that bring a  smile to our face; meditate / deal with stress; engage in activities we enjoy e.g. playing music, walking in nature, dancing, or reading; the capacity to sleep and rest well; the degree to which we are in touch with and can 'digest' our feelings without  either of the extremes of overwhelm or denial.

 Tools :- We can all learn these skills. If we recognise that one or other of them is a significant challenge for us it is skilful rather than self indulgent to get the help and support we need. Why? Because we will then be more personally resilient and able to get on with the bigger job at hand. Some forms of help might be :- Personal Mentoring, co-counselling, life coaching,  eco-psychology, counselling or psychotherapy, The Work That Reconnects, bodywork, massage, nutrition advice, playing sport with others, joining a walking club, learning to meditate etc. etc.

 3. Relational resources/supporting each other point to our ability to have nourishing relationships and friendships  regardless of whether we have an intimate relationship; the extent to which we feel respected, seen and appreciated;  humour and our ability to be playful and curious with others; flexibility and our capacity to enjoy and learn from other points of view.

 Tools :- We can increase our sense of supportive relationship through doing things together, and sharing our stories  and experiences. We can also learn a lot through listening to each others stories and experiences. Structures that can facilitate these things to happen might be :- Home groups or peer groups / sharing circles, GOOD GROUPS.

 4. Group resources include the ability to be 'in this challenge with others and community'. This can be fostered by things that help us feel we are not in this alone, that others are also contributing to this huge 'transition', and the fact that many small contributions amount to a very large one.

 Tools :- CELEBRATING together, The Work That Reconnects, all aspects of being involved with a Transition Initiative.