Resilience Is The New Happiness
I love it when my inbox is filled with interesting psychological research. It fuels my quest for knowledge in how I can best help my therapy clients, and it also provides me with unique and valuable information for my mental health bracelet designs.
I read this great article about how “resilience in the new happiness”. The concept is that in order for us to be happy, we first must be strong. We need to be able to pick ourselves up when we fall, and detach ourselves from sadness when we fail. And the best part – resilience is a skill. It is not some quality that is reserved for a select few. Everyone can build up resilience skills, like a muscle, at any age. And it is well worth putting in the effort. Simply put, resilience can help us heal ourselves.
Here are some areas that you can work on in order to build up your resilience. Let each of the blue beads be a reminder to focus on these daily.
- Boundaries. Be mindful of how much you allow problems in one area of your life to affect other areas of your life. Learn to set boundaries and avoid “spillover”.
- Self-Talk. Pay attention to what thoughts are running through your head. How to you talk to yourself? When you catch yourself having negative thoughts, work on turning them into positive thoughts. Use meditation or other relaxation strategies to help quiet the “chatter”, “static”, or “noise” going on in your head. If you’d like some help with this, here is an article I wrote on helping you identify what “cognitive distortion” you are using, and then applying “the fix”. /12-major-types-of-cognitive-distortions-that-can-affect-mood-and-behavior/
- Locus of control. Remember that you are in control of your own thoughts and behavior. The more you believe that you can effect change, the more you will be engaged in purposeful behavior to bounce back and improve a negative situation.
- Compassion and empathy. We feel good when we help others, and building connections helps us build our own social networks. A strong social support network is important to the resilient person, and the resilient person knows how to draw upon that support when needed.
- Stress Management. Engage in whatever activity helps you relax and de-stress. Yoga, meditation, hiking, deep breathing, listening to music, running, or spending time with your partner, family, pet, and/or friends.
- Gratitude. Practicing gratitude on a daily basis will help you build resilience. You then will not get caught up in the things that are going wrong, and rather be better able to celebrate the things that are going well. If you would like to learn some creative and fun ways to incorporate gratitude into your life, feel free to come to one of my upcoming workshops on fostering gratitude. /announcements/
Here is the link for the Resilience is the New Happiness Bracelet
http://peggysmidnightcreations.com/product/resilience-is-the-new-happiness-bracelet/
Here is a link to browse other mental health bracelets
http://peggysmidnightcreations.com/line/mental-health/
And here is a link to browse other bracelets for inspiration, encouragement, and support
Leave a Reply