Have you ever felt really stuck? Overwhelmed? Hopeless? Exhausted (emotionally, physically, mentally)? Like the weight of the world was on your shoulders? This was me around 11 years ago.
I have been working with the concept of resilience for more than 10 years now. I have been accredited to teach a model to help people build resilience when they face adversity for over 10 years.
I first became aware of the wonderful work of the Resilience Centre in 2009, when I attended a 2-day training. Why did I choose to attend this type of training? The answer may not be what you expect.
At the time I was working as a clinician within the Workers Compensation industry. I did great work, got great results, helped many people but I was exhausted; emotionally, physically and mentally.
I was looking for hope. Something that would strengthen me for the fight that I undertook each and every day in the trenches with these people who did nothing more than go to work and then in the blink of an eye lost what can feel like ‘everything’. You might not be aware, however the most recent statistics provided by the ABS and Safe Work Australia show that in the year 2017-18 there was on average 1544 injuries per day in Australian workplaces with 421 of those injured workers requiring financial assistance.
These are people like you and me going to work to provide for our families and BAM! Everything changes. You may not have a personal experience with a serious work related injury, however, based on the statistics quoted above chances are we will know of someone who has.
Once a serious injury occurs, a person’s life changes a lot. A lot of these changes can be hard.
Changes like learning to cope with chronic pain, changes to what they can do or how they do things, stress, relationship stress and breakdown, financial hardship, loss of career, loss of friendships and mental health struggles.
In all my years of working with this population of people, I rarely saw just a person with an injury who needed help to keep their old job or help to find a new job. I saw people who were angry, felt broken, felt lost, had physical and mental health issues, struggled with treatment, felt unsupported, felt like no one really got it.
So, as you may imagine I was looking for something to help me to my job better, something to help these people feel like they had some hope in a system that did not provide a whole lot. This was when I learned about the concept of resilience.
I teach this model and concepts to people from all walks of life. These concepts apply to everyone; kids, teens, parents, professional’s, teams and people with injuries and illnesses. Let’s face it who doesn’t need help to cope with the struggles of life at times.
When I ask what resilience is, people always say “Its bouncing back,” “coping,” “being strong” “having determination,” all of which are great concepts to explain what it takes to be resilient.
Unfortunately, like many terms that become popular and frequently used, it can end up coming off as “fluffy” and losing some of its meaning. So, I want to introduce you to some keys about resilience that will help us understand what it takes for each of us to be resilient when our world feels like it is crashing down.
Psychologists used to think that being resilient was something people were either born with or not, so if you weren’t born that way, bad luck! The truth is that some people are born with more of the traits that help them be resilient, like optimism for example.
What we now know is that resilience is a skill that anyone can learn. Now this is exciting! No one is stuck. If you are struggling to cope, here is a simple but powerful framework to help you learn how you too can become more resilient.
To help us understand what it takes to build our resilience, I am going to share with you over coming weeks, in a series of articles the 4 G’s of Resilience.
The 4G’s of resilience are:
Gratitude
Grounding
Growth
and
Grit
I will expand on each of the G’s each week for the next 4 weeks so you can see how each of these concepts is linked to resilience and how you can use each of them in your life starting immediately.
You will then have some simple, powerful and effective tools to use when life gets wobbly.
Resilience is a skill that all of us can build, if you would like to know more about how we can help you grow your resilience or would like to be kept update date with new online initiatives planned for early 2020, then make sure you are subscribed to our email mailing list. Alternatively, you can email admin@purpleco.com.au with a request for more information.
References used to write this article:
Who is Kylie Warry?
Kylie is all about helping people to overcome barriers in their lives. She is a Consultant Rehabilitation Counsellor author and trainer with a specific interest in resilience and improving communication.
Kylie graduated from the University of New England with an Honours degree Behavioural Science (1993), and a Post Graduate in Psychology (1995). She has been a practicing Rehabilitation Counsellor and Mental Health Clinician for more than 20 years
Kylie is passionate about the health benefits of work and truly believes that everyone has the right to meaningful and rewarding employment. She believes that with the right tools and supports we can all live our best life, regardless of our circumstances.
How to contact Kylie:
admin@purpleco.com.au
www.purpleco.com.au
https://www.linkedin.com/in/purpleco/
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