Bouncing Forwards: Developing a Resilient Approach

Resilience is not ‘carrying on regardless’, or ‘growing a thick skin’. Come along and find out what it is and how to develop yours.

Do you often feel overwhelmed in the face of unexpectedly negative or challenging situations or people? Is your first instinct to run away and hide? Or is it to carry on regardless, burning yourself out in the process? Do you give in to excessive displays of emotion? Or do you bottle everything up or push it down?

Any or all of these strategies may appear to offer a solution in the short term, but over time, they become destructive. A healthier, more sustainable, and more effective way to manage such situations is to develop a resilient approach, but what do we mean by resilience?

Contrary to popular belief, resilience is not ‘carrying on regardless’, ‘turning the other cheek’, ‘turning a blind eye’, or ‘growing a thick skin’. These behaviours are more like ‘chronic endurance’, and they are neither healthy nor sustainable.

We sometimes hear resilience described as our ability to ‘bounce back’, but why would we want to ‘bounce back’ to where we were? We need to bounce back and move forward so that we don’t find ourselves continually firefighting against the same challenges.

In this session, we’ll explore what resilience is and what it isn’t, and we’ll discuss some strategies to help build resilience whilst maintaining boundaries and protecting our energy and wellbeing. Your resilience isn’t someone else’s doormat!