Final challenge - Roadmap

The final challenge of the course is to develop a Roadmap to become and stay a resilient person.

Think about what you can do and come up with a plan after reflecting on all the contents of this course and all the tools it provided.

Good luck :)

Conclusion

Don't forget:

• Pay attention to the positive.

• Practice gratitude

• Manage negative emotions

Commitment

We reached the last week of the course.

It is important to commit to become a resilient person.

Resilience is the ability to survive (navigate stressful situations) and thrive (optimising performance) in life.

Relationships

Relationships contibute to resilience.

Man is by nature a social animal. -- Aristotle

 High quality relationships produce well-being.

Types of relationships:

• Social support (guidance, emotional support, love) - good social support from people that are present, that provide good advice, that validates our experiments and that do not engage in stress competitions

• Mentoring - mentors can help us increase and enhance our zone of proximal development (what we are capable of doing independently), they give us a greater sense of self-confidence, they can connect us to opportunities and they can make us feel successful. Mentors benefit by teaching things to others and increasing their comprehension of matters

• Acts of kindness - good deeds trigger our sense of elevation; an act of kindness can trigger other acts of kindness 

• Role models - look up to someone to learn from their example. Someone that is inspiring and has a clear set of values and is commited to others and to the community. Also, try to lead by example.

Compassion

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. -- Albert Einstein

Therapeutic lifestyle choices

The choices we make everyday constrain our lives and help us deal with stress.
Therapeutic lifestyle choices (TLC) are about the mind body connection. "Mens sana in corpore sano" (Sound body. Sound mind).

The big three therapeutic lifestyle choices:

• Exercise - 2 hours per week of moderate aerobic exercise and weight baring (lifting weights, for example).

• Nutrition - we are what we eat. The eating choices we make impact our resilience and our mental health. Eat with moderation. Avoid unhealthy food. How you eat is as important as what you eat.

• Sleep - a good night sleep is essential. It is strongly related to our mental health impacting attention, learning, mood, processing speed, focus. Adults need 7 to 9 hours per night to feel rested and to perform optimally. 

Other activities:

• Spend time in nature

• Finding time for leisure and recreation

• Scheduling time for relaxation - sense of revitalization

Cultivating positive emotions

Positive emotions have the following effects:

• broaden people's attention and thinking

• build important personal resources and increase well-being

• are essential ingredients within resilience

• undo the after-effects of negative effects

10 positive emotions:

How to cultivate positive emotions?

• focus on the small things

• acts of kindness

• experience flow (optimal performance; time melts again)

• connect with others

• practice gratitude (noticing what others do for us)