From resilience expert to experiencing unimaginable tragedy herself, Lucy Horne shares her story and experience in building resilience in this amazing TED Talk.
Adversity doesn’t discriminate. Everyone who has ever lived has experienced adversity and the challenges that it creates. We all go through tough times. Some are personal, some are shared experiences similar to the global events we currently find ourselves in.
What people need most in these times is hope.
In her talk, Lucy shares 3 strategies for building resilience and creating that hope. Here they are:
“Resilient people get that shit happens”
They know that suffering is a part of life. It’s not to say that they open their arms to it or like it. It’s just that accepting it and moving on stops them from feeling discriminated against. Or feeling like the victim.
“Resilient people are really good at choosing carefully where they select their attention”
In other words, they focus on the things they can change not the things they can’t. And this is a vital and learnable skill in building resilience.
As humans we are hard wired to focus on threats. This has served us well from an evolutionary point of view. But being so conscious of the negatives in life often means we don’t focus on the positive.
Resilient people work out a way for tuning into the good. Activities like expressing gratitude and including it in a routine is a great way to start doing this.
“Is what I’m doing helping or hindering me?”
This is a go to question and can be applied in so many different contexts.
Reading the news and flicking through social media are just a couple of examples we can probably all relate to. Create a habit of asking yourself ‘is this helping or hindering me’. Asking this question can put you back in control of your decision making.
Conclusion
Remember that resilience is not a fixed trait. It’s not something that some people have, and others don’t. Resilience is something that can be developed.
Here is the full 16-minute TED talk where Lucy shares these 3 strategies along with her personal experience of using them. Highly recommended viewing.
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