WELCOME to Week 6 - Resilience (Part 2)
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In the last module we looked at building resilience by increasing positive emotions. We can also work at reducing negative thinking. Our brains are hard-wired to scan for threat, and to look for the negative. Ever notice how you might have a day when ten things go right, one thing goes wrong, and all you can think about at the end of the day is that one thing that went badly? This is because of the negativity bias of our brains – they are like ‘velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good’. The good news is that we can retrain our mental habits so that we become better at seeking for and appreciating the good, and giving less weight to the negative.
Like all the other skills we are learning in this class, though, this takes practice. We’ll learn some tools and exercises to do this in this module. Start by watching this brief video, and then move on to try at least one exercise from the heart, head and hand category.
Now explore the head, hand and heart sections for this module. We’ll be focusing on building positive emotions and decreasing negative ones.
Head
Here’s a library and video gallery about resilience. Take a look or listen – do any of these inspire you?
Heart
Here is a selection of guided meditations. Try to do one of these at least five days a week. You can do the same one over and over, or you can try different ones.
- Quieting the Inner Critic with Eileen McNally (13 min)
- Resiliencia en Tiempos de Crisis por Feli Garcia (10 mins)
- The RAIN of Self-Compassion with Tara Brach (10 min)
- Mental and Emotional Support Practice with John Siddique (11 minutes)
- Emotional Intelligence: Finding and Expanding Positive Feelings with Andra West (9 mins)
Hand
Here are some different resilience exercises for you to try.
The first one is a short video about how to defeat negative thinking. Watch it, and then practice the ‘distract and dispute’ technique next time you are feeling negative.
The other four activities also encourage you to develop resilience, by focusing on positive things and reframing your understanding of events with a more positive perspective. Click the links to open them. Consider sharing in the discussion post about your experiments with resilience – we’d love to hear how you got on!
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Finding Silver Linings (10 min/day)
Change your outlook on a negative event — and enjoy less stress. -
Gratitude Journal (15 min/3 days)
Count your blessings and enjoy better health and happiness. -
Creating and Recalling Positive Events (1 day)
Discover what activities bring you the most happiness. -
Three Good Things (10 min/day)
A way to tune into the positive events in your life.
Sharing our experiences is a way we can support each other, build community, and deepen our understanding. Please consider joining the private Facebook page for CARE course participants. Here we will be able to connect with each other, and share our experiences. Click on the button below to access and join the group, then respond to the posts about this week’s adventures with awareness, if you’d like to!
This British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) site contains “short films and videos for curious minds” on all kinds of topics. There are lots of different playlists. Good ones for this module are the Resilience Playlist and How To Navigate Modern Life
