Resilience

Getting knocked down is part of life. It’s getting back up that takes something extra. That something is called resilience; the human capacity to recover from challenges like trauma, disasters, stress, and hardships. Will Rogers articulated it as, “The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.”

While developing resilience is beneficial for your personal life, it can be especially vital in today’s workplace. Psychology Today points out that a fluctuating economy, evolving technology, and dynamic demands all require employees to fortify against the impact of recurring stressors. It’s been shown that resilient workers actually do things differently; they “grow and thrive” in the face of adversity. Sound like something you and your team should be working on? Here are some techniques to build resilience so you can bounce back from anything.

Strategies for Resilience

Things happen for us, not to us

Perception is everything. When bad things happen, and especially when they happen to good people, it can be easy to go into victim mentality. But, when you reframe a difficulty as a challenge or see mistakes as learning experiences, you can get through anything. Ask yourself what lessons can be learned, rather than letting a situation get the best of you. For example, turn a repeated error on a report into a new protocol to prevent it from happening in the future.  

Practice Makes Perfectly Imperfect

If resilience isn’t born, it can be bred. The “road to resilience” is a process, not “a perfect,” and it takes practice. To foster resilience, start by learning strategies to deal with setbacks before they happen and practice using them daily. Yoga, meditation, focused breathing, spiritual disciplines, and problem-solving techniques are some ways you can get your mind right to deal with anything that comes across your desk.

Learn to Fall

When your yoga teacher has you stand on one leg in Tree Pose during your on-site yoga class, she’s teaching you to stay steady in an unsteady situation. If you fall out of the posture – good for you! It’s an opportunity to get right back up and try again. This is just one of many resilience lessons from yoga that you can take off your mat and into your everyday life.

Be Flexible – in Body and Mind

When you attempt something unfamiliar, like a variation on or a brand new yoga pose (and maybe feel fear at experimenting with the unknown), you’re demonstrating the ability to take risks. By calmly adjusting to compensate – you’re practicing resilience. You might have to explore to find a version that works for your body, or maybe rest a while in Child’s Pose before deciding what to do next, but when you discover the way the movement feels good, stay awhile and breathe into it, your resilience will thrive.

Seek Stillness

In our previous blog about how mindfulness boosts productivity in the workplace, we explained that this form of meditation has been proven to decrease stress, facilitate job performance, enhance cognitive flexibility, and more. Mindfulness provides employees in particular with the tools to improve their awareness and navigate their reactions to challenges at work. Mindfulness practice includes focused attention and breathing exercises to accept things as they are in the present moment without judgement. It’s an integral practice to incorporate to strengthen tendencies towards resilience.

Push Pause/Pump the Brakes

One of our favorite benefits of meditation and breathing exercises is learning non-reactivity. We like to call it “pumping the brakes.” Learning to sit through discomfort and to weather the storm is a key factor in being resilient. Yes, sometimes situations call for immediate action, but it’s also critical to know when to “hit the pause button” or to “pump the brakes” before reacting. Learning to recognize the difference and call on the proper reaction or non-reaction is indispensable, especially when it comes to job duties.

Connect with Your Pack

There’s no cause for a lone wolf. Rally your pack, get involved with your community/co-workers and put time into personal and professional relationships that nourish you. Michael Lee Stallard, a member of Forbes Councils and author of Connection Culture, says fostering connections at work is key to creating company culture and can help boost overall performance. When you surround yourself with people that support you, resilience will thrive.

Don’t let that fighting spirit sit idle. Start building resilience today by having Goomi Group bring mental toughness teachings to your team. Take advantage of our free consultation to find customized corporate wellness classes that meet your company’s culture, budget, and needs.

Click here to learn about How Mindfulness Boosts Productivity, Creativity and Resilience in the Workplace.

Craving a little change in life? More specifically, is there something you would like to transform in your life? Maybe a habit that needs breaking or a behavior that needs beginning? Perhaps you need to switch something up for your physical or mental health, for your personal and professional relationships, or maybe for all of the above.

It’s no secret that change is well, hard. Let’s face it – it can be downright challenging and painful to undertake, but it can also be supremely rewarding and ultimately life-altering. You can break a pattern, start new habits and change your life, you just need to know how.

So, what’s the secret to being successful at change and sticking to everlasting new habits? It’s all about your readiness and once you’re raring to go, the process. Here’s our formula for being a boss at change.

#1 Assess Your Readiness

An assessment sounds so formal and scary, but it’s the most important part of the change making process. If you’re not really ready you’re not going to be able to make and maintain change.

Most theoretical models for change include initial steps for indicating readiness. The first level includes accepting the status quo and likely, even being resistant to change. There’s no change happening here. It then moves onto a stage where consideration of the possibility of doing things differently arises. Maybe you start to follow social media accounts that showcase healthy eating or you begin watching YouTube  videos of an exercise modality that interests you. This is an indication that change may be on the horizon.

If you find yourself at this juncture, you can formally ask yourself if you really want to make this change in your life. If the answer is yes, super! You can now do an inventory of both positive and negative consequences of the new behavior or habit. Really consider all the implications on your lifestyle, your relationships, your career … Once you’ve done this, if you’re still intent on moving forward, desire is present and you’re ready! Now, you can move on to the next step – Prepare and Plan.

#2 Prepare and Plan

Let’s say you’re all set to go from a sedentary lifestyle into a more active one. You’ve assessed your readiness, researched activities that interest you, started reading some yoga blogs and watching instructional videos. You’ve determined you’re truly ready and committed to starting a yoga program. So now, it’s just like the Boy Scouts say, you’ll need to prepare for making this change in your life. Tasks like shopping for a mat and researching in-person classes to take are part of your preparation.

You should also think of anything that might sabotage your change and ready yourself to meet that challenge. For example, if you know that in order to squeeze in a yoga practice before work on the days there aren’t Goomi classes at your office, you’ll need to wake up 30 minutes earlier – so prepare for this.

Prepping might also include setting out your yoga mat and cueing up a video the night before your morning home practice. You might pack your gym bag with your yoga clothes and mat and bring  along a healthy lunch that’s easy to eat at your desk on Goomi class days.

It’s also a good idea to communicate your intention for change to your family, close friends and even your co-workers as part of setting yourself up for success! If you speak it out, it makes it real and then you’ll have a village of people to hold you accountable and support you. This is all part of the preparation process and is essential for a smooth transition.

Next, you’ll need to make a formal plan for what you’ve prepared, which in this case, would be a schedule for your yoga practice, setting alarms for your wakeup schedule and arranging an after-school activity or childcare for your kids on days you hit a studio class after work. (Good thing your office brings in Goomi twice a week for lunchtime classes – those are easy to get to!) Be sure to put your new habit or program physically into your calendar. Make daily appointments that you stick to, just like you do with meetings and doctor visits.

#3 Execute

This is where you pull the trigger and just do it. Get up when the alarm clock goes off early. Go to your lunchtime classes. Skedaddle from the office to the yoga studio after work. Whatever you’ve planned – just do it. And keep doing it. “They” say it takes 21 days to break a behavior or develop a new habit, but don’t think you’re scott free after three weeks. Newer studies say it takes around 66 days, and you can count 90 days to form a new lifestyle according to the 21/90 rule. Keep in mind – everyone is different. So just keep going! Trust us, you’ll know when change sticks and it will if you follow these steps.

So what’s stopping you from being a boss at change? Remember, Goomi is here to support your resolution for transformation! If healthier living and wellness is a part of the life you want to live, then we can bring it directly to your office to make committing a little easier. Find out more at GoomiGroup.com.