What it is . . .

How it is -- caught, -- taught, fostered . . . How related to Franciscan self-care?

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What does it mean to you?

• The ability of a material to absorb energy when deformed elastically and to return it when unloaded is called resilience.

The toughness of a material is its ability to absorb energy in the plastic range. The ability to withstand occasional, stresses above the yield stress without fracturing is particularly desirable in parts such as freight-car couplings, gears, chains, and crane hooks.

Resilience is the ability of an individual or group to carry on and solve problems so that survival of hard times is more likely. Resilience protects individuals from depression and includes behaviours that can be taught to persons who are vulnerable to hardships including physical illness, psychosocial isolation and aloneness, and mental illness.

• • • • Older adults who rated their overall health as relatively good were also more willing to talk with health providers about depressive symptoms if it was affecting their social activities, making them feel useless to others, or affecting how well they could think or concentrate.

• New research needs to occur to learn more about how to build resilience in older adults with symptoms of depression in hopes of encouraging them to talk about depressive symptoms with the health provider. The goal is to prevent symptoms from progressing to a diagnosable disorder.

• The more resilience a person demonstrates, the more likely that person is to talk with health professionals about depressive symptoms and seek care to relieve those symptoms. New research is also needed to learn which factors other than resilience and depressive symptoms have an influence on how willing older African Americans are to seek mental health care for those symptoms.

Resilience: resistance factor for depressive

symptom P. R . S M I T H phd RN

Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health

Nursing, 2009, 16, 829–837

Resiliency – Nature or nurture? BOTH

• • • • Can individuals learn to be more resilient, or are some just born with the ability to bounce back from adversity?

Both, according to researchers, whose work suggests that human beings are born with an innate self-righting ability.

This can be helped or hindered. Their findings are fueling a major shift in thinking about human development: from obsessing about problems and weaknesses to recognizing “the power of the positive”–identifying and building individual and environmental strengths that help people to overcome difficulties, achieve happiness, and attain life success.

BOTH: Protective Factors

• • • • People bounce back in two ways: 1: internal resources; they draw upon their own inner strengths, 2: external resources: they encounter people, organizations, and activities that provide them with the conditions that help the emergence of their resilience.

“These buffers” are more powerful in a person’s life than risks or traumas or stress. They fuel the movement towards healthy development.

HOW TO BUILD RESILIENCY FACTORS

• • • • • Psychologists call these internal and external conditions “protective factors” and conclude, “these buffers” are more powerful in a person’s life than risks or traumas or stress. They fuel the movement towards healthy development.” 1. Communicate “The Resiliency Attitude.” 2. Adopt a “Strengths Perspective.” 3. Surround Each Person—as well as Families and Organizations—with all elements

of “The Resiliency Wheel.”

4. Give It Time. A resilient outcome requires patience.

from the book, Resiliency In Action: Practical Ideas for Overcoming Risks and Building Strengths in Youth, Families, and Communities

“The Resiliency Wheel.”

COMMUNICATE

• •

The first “protective” strategy is communicating the attitude, “You have what it takes to get through this!” in words and deeds You have what it takes.

“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.” ― Maya Angelou

BUILDING RESPONSES FOR RESILIENCY

• • • It seems antithetical to talk about inviting fun and laughter back into people’s lives who have experienced horrendous trauma but it is essential. Recent research tells us that positive emotions (joy, amusement, contentment, serenity, for example) seem to speed recovery as ‘undoers’ of negative emotion and associated arousal within the nervous system.

It seems antithetical to talk about inviting fun and laughter back into people’s lives who have experienced horrendous trauma but it is essential. Recent research tells us that positive emotions (joy, amusement, contentment, serenity, for example) seem to speed recovery as ‘undoers’ of negative emotion and associated arousal within the nervous system.

Finding positive meaning in suffering may be the most important variable in terms of post-traumatic growth.

Ordinary and extraordinary narratives of heroism and resistance: Uncovering resilience,

competence and growth Julia Hutchinson & Juan Carlos Lema

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 24, Nos. 3 & 4, November 2009

ONE FACE OF EXTERNAL RESOURCES OF RESILIENCY

• Dr. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race. Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

I was liked, and what a difference it made. I was respected not as Mrs. Henderson's grandchild or Bailey's sister but for just being Marguerite Johnson. (15.56)

FOCUS ON STRENGTHS

•

“The keystone of high achievement and happiness is exercising your strengths,” rather than focusing on weaknesses, concludes resiliency researcher Seligman (2001), director of the Positive Psychology Center is located at the University of Pennsylvania.

http://ri.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVr.HjjhTLyYAZpBjmolQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByMG04Z2o2BHNlYwNzcgRwb 3MDMQRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw- /RV=1/RE=1396301831/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dcbecKv2xR14/R S=%5EADAYJ1LVUTkSxQYIE1kMDzvcltYfEU-

NATURE ON NURTURE SUPPORTED

Resilience in re-entering missionaries: why do some do well?

• • • • • • • • • •

Psychological

Used flexibility in responding to re-entry distress Described high expectancy with a sense of purpose or achievement Used self-determination or reinvention of self with internal locus of control to manage re-entry distress Used denial with minimisation as a method of dealing with re-entry distress Enjoyed good mental health as described by their lack of psychosocial and/or spiritual crises

Social

Provided with social support from two or more groups such as community (family, friends); faith community; sending organzsation Described positive reintegration into Australian society Spiritual Described a positive sense of connection to God Typical Variant Mental Health, Religion & Culture Vol. 12, No. 7, November 2009, 701–720

Protective Factors . . .

“ If you’re going through hell Keep on going, don’t slow down If you’re scared, don’t show it You might get out Before the devil even knows you’re there”

Rodney Atkins

If You’re going Through Hell

sfrom.net

sfrom.net/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKybUusyP8

The Journey

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.

"Mend my life!" each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible.

Protective Factors . . . It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones.

But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do- determined to save the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver

VAN GOGH TIMELINE

1853 - March 30 - Vincent Van Gogh is born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands 1888 - October - Completion of Vincent's Bedroom in Arles 1888 - December - Van Gogh cuts off a portion of his ear and commits himself to a mental asylum in Saint Rémy 1888 - December - Ends his friendship with Gauguin 1889 - May - Completion of Irises 1889 - June - Completion of Starry Night 1890 - February - Completion of Almost Blossom 1890 - May - Van Gogh leaves Saint Rémy and begins contacting his brother Theo 1890 - May - Leaves the asylum to begin care in Auvers-sur-Oise under Dr. Paul Gachet, who was recommended by Camille Pissarro 1890 - July 29 - Vincent Van Gogh dies of a self-inflicted gunshot. He was buried on July 30 at Auvers-sur-Oise

FROM HIS TIME AT ST. REMY AND AUVERS

WHAT KEPT THIS MAN A) ALIVE B) PAINTING

What sent van Gogh to the cell-like rooms of the asylum seeking a cure, a few more days to paint, a freedom from pain enough to pick up a brush?

What allowed his spirit, often described as fragile and frail, to bounce back and rebuild balance?

In a probing exploration entitled Van Gogh and God, Cliff Edwards points to a sense of the divine that held the tormented Dutch painter close to the fire of life no matter what difficult circumstances surrounded him. Van Gogh’s in-depth theology was an idiomorphic view of God, a God, who like Vincent himself, was a struggling artist. God, like Christ, worked not in paint and clay, but in flesh and word, making mistakes. [Loyola, 1989]

“I imagine that, like me, your thoughts are much with Jo and Theo: how glad I was when the news came that it had ended well: it was a good thing that Wil stayed on. I should have greatly preferred him to call the boy after Father, of whom I have been thinking so much these days, instead of after me; but seeing it has now been done, I started right away to make a picture for him, to hang in their bedroom, big branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky.”

Biblical significance From the staff of Aaron – put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds" (Numbers 17:8) to the vision of Jeremiah (1:11-12) The word of the LORD came to me saying, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "I see a rod of an almond tree." Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it."… To the Tree of Life – Revelation 22:2 On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Almond Tree Painting by Barbara Gerodimou http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=commercial+f or+compassion&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=C CEAF8B339357B09DA46CCEAF8B339357B09DA4 6