The third edition of Coffee With the Coaches, featuring Hutchinson Consulting partners Michael Tompkins and Kristine Huffman, focused on resilience. If you missed the live session, listen here:
The current crisis can be overwhelming, particularly for those who have been laid off or furloughed. Here are some helpful tips for adapting to these unexpected life changes and learning how to emerge stronger than before.
Resilience is:
- the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness
- the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity
A resilient system has room to be elastic.
Stress can flood your system with chemistry that help you respond in one of 4-F’s
- Fight – anger, aggression, muscle activation etc.
- Flight – avoidance, running away
- Freeze – unable to move hypersensitizes sensory system
- Friend – seeking out others
None of these responses are necessarily bad, they just may not be what you need, and if the you keep pumping out this chemistry, you will eventually have a system that isn’t very resilient.
Ways to detox and reset your system include:
- Acknowledge
- Be aware that the stress response is engaged—what are you feeling/fearing?
- Is there an image, voice, feeling that goes with this?
- Breathe
- Place your feet on the ground—feel the support
- Exhale fully
- Inhale into your belly—unclench your muscles
- Convert
- Shift the image, voice, or feeling from something negative to something positive (or neutral)
- Have some positive images, mantras, or motions that are soothing to you.
- Do (or- Don’t Do)
- If you’re there, say, do or act to address the issue, or
- Pause and analyze best possible outcome
- Pause and let the other person emote
- Explore solutions – then Do it!
- If you’re there, say, do or act to address the issue, or
Resources at HeartMath – https://www.heartmath.org/.
Join us for our next editions of Coffee With the Coaches, which take place each Wednesday at 1 pm ET. Topics and registration links are available here.
