Stress is how our body reacts to worries. Worries are those things that trouble us. A little stress can help push us through a problem or challenge. Too much stress can be painful and harm our health.
Resilience can help protect us from too much stress. We become resilient by learning coping skills that make stress easier to handle. Becoming resilient means we learn to reach out and talk to other people about our problems and worries. This is often called social support. A social support system is a very important part of becoming resilient because many people working together are more likely to solve a problem. By learning to work with others on problems, we become better problem solvers. The better we become at solving problems the more we believe that we can reach a goal. We feel better about ourselves. Resilience can help us in our work, learning, and the way we handle our problems. We are able to reach out and find help when needed.
The Hero’s Journey is a storytelling style found in many epic stories. Our hero faces a challenge and goes on an adventure. The hero is victorious in meeting the challenge and returns as a changed person. Some examples are Luke in Star Wars, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and Frodo in Lord of the Rings. Like the hero facing the challenge, your call to adventure begins when you face a stressful challenge. That challenge moves you from where you are comfortable to the unknown. But, with some clever problem solving and the help of other people you can victoriously come to terms with the challenge. Resilience helps us cope with difficult change and the Hero's Journey helps see these challenges as opportunities for growth.
Your goal with this learning is to create your own Hero's Journey while becoming more resilient. Yet, a goal without a plan is only a wish. So, there are three exercises that help move you along in your Hero's Journey. There are challenges, skills to be developed, and companions on the journey. These skills are your protective armor. They make you more resilient. You learn five resilience skills, Belief, Persistence, Strength, Trust, Adaptability, and can even make your own skills. One way to create your Hero's Journey is to explore each of the five skills. You can start with the Belief skill and work on the Tell your story exercise. Then, find a companion or companions to work with the Collaboration exercise. Find a real challenge and complete that exercise. Finally, alone or with your companion, work on the Transformation exercise.
1. Tell your story builds confidence. In this first exercise, select a skill flashcard, such as Belief. Remember a past challenge where you were successful using something like the skill presented on the flashcard. Work on answering the questions while keeping the past challenge in mind. Look to the flashcard Example for ideas about how to put together your story. This is where we see how our heroes go about life in their ordinary world before their call to adventure. Luke is a farm boy on the planet Tatooine. Dorothy is a farm girl living in Kansas. And, Frodo is a small Hobbit living in the Shire.
2. Collaboration moves you from the familiar to the unknown in the Hero’s Journey. Collaboration means working together to problem solve. Remember Luke had Obi Wan, Dorothy had Glinda the Good, and Frodo had Gandalf to help form social support systems to work together as they moved into the unknown. You also want a companion to work with to develop your skill and meet the challenge. Find a real challenge you, your companion or someone you know is facing and apply the skill using the questions to guide you.
3. Transformation asks that you think about, or reflect on, the skill you just used. This is where our heroes, surrounded by their social support systems, make their return to their known world. Each of our heroes has changed or transformed in some way. Luke gets a hero’s welcome with his companions. Dorothy returns to her family with the knowledge that to do anything, you must believe in yourself. Frodo realizes he can no longer go back to his ordinary life in the Shire and decides to leave with Bilbo, Gandalf, and the elves. Looking at the Hero’s Journey, you moved from the known by doing the Tell your story exercise. Then you moved to an adventure in the unknown, Collaboration, where you worked with another person to deal with a real challenge by applying a skill. And, now, you return from the adventure. Transformation is thinking about how you have changed after working with the exercises. How did your thinking change? What did you learn from working on a real challenge with another person? What did you learn from the skill you just practiced? Try describing the skill in a few of your own words. Today is the day your story begins, and no matter how difficult the journey, you get to write the conclusion.
Try the exercises. These Basic Resilience Exercises are written to grade 8 to 9 reading level. The exercises can be completed orally. Alternatively, writing responses can often help to better organize thinking. If you have limited time, then consider completing the Belief and Trust skills. Then, go to the Strength Skill and practice a relaxation exercise, such as diaphragmatic breathing. Though each skill is unique, the learning exercises for each skill are nearly the same. This repeating of exercises is intended to build confidence. The repetition srengthens the idea that each of us can be resilient and work comfortably with others as we deal with real life challenges. It is therefore essential that you work with a companion while completing the resilience exercises.
Basic Resilience Exercises are concise applied activities written to a grade 8 - 9 reading level. The exercises, built around the Hero's Journey theme, encourage social support and develop problem solving abilities through positive-coping skills. Basic Resilience Exercises PDF (20 pages) »
A very simple browser-based app that parallels the content of the five skill resilience in the Resilience Exercises. All data is stored locally on your computer or device. Try it here »
Download Resilience Application. Simple App that can be run on any browser. All data are stored locally on your computer or device. Resilience App zip »
For younger learners and ESL learners, short illustrated stories explore resilience and the Hero's Journey while encouraging the building of social support, self-esteem and self-efficacy (belief in one's ability to reach a goal). Written at a 4th grade reading level. More »
A brief look at goal setting as a method for persisting with a challenge. Includes a brief literature review completed in the spring of 2016 that discusses history and process. More »
Health-related physical activity shows more desirable health outcomes across a variety of physical conditions. In general, exercise and physical activity are associated with better quality of life and health outcomes. A look at evidence-based diet and exercise plans in a literature review from spring, 2016. More »
NCTSN.org is a resource for the public, professionals, and others who care about children and are concerned about child traumatic stress. Link »
Brief resilience guide, for parents and teachers, with focus on children. Link »
The above Basic Resilience Exercises should be explored before this STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) exercise examining the Internet of Things (IoT). Technology has quickly and dramatically changed the way we work, socialize, and communicate. Discover how technology gives us insight on developing a social support system to deal with our challenges while learning about the Internet of Things (IoT) using visual programming (Node-RED). Because of the educational focus, these exercises use the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer. If you do not have a Raspberry Pi computer available, you can still complete all of the exercises using either a Macintosh or Windows computer -- see how to install Node-RED below. These exercises have been used at the middle school level and above.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) resilience exercise using a Raspberry Pi computer. More »
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) resilience exercise using a Macintosh computer. More »
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) resilience exercise using a Windows computer. More »