Tips for Staying Resilient
As they say in the airline business,
Put the oxygen mask
On yourself first!
Taking time for yourself is so hard to do when you've just suffered a trauma.
There are a hundred feelings to feel and often a thousand tasks to do. Yet it is vitally important to do so. So commit to setting an alarm twice a day and, when it goes off, take a few minutes to slow down, pause, breath and nurture yourself. Do a ten minute mediation, have a bite to eat, take a walk or write down feelings.
All of this will help you do better and feel better.
Empowering You to Achieve Happiness
Tip 1: Practice Acceptance:
When disaster strikes there is a lot you can’t control, so go easy on yourself.
Tip 2: Allow for Feelings.
You’re going to have moments of irritability, sadness, or overwhelm. Don’t judge these moments as they are normal reactions to stress.
Tip 3: Change The Narrative
Find Silver Linings if you can. Be grateful for what you can be grateful for.
Tip 4: Build Social Connections:
This is a good time to connect with others and give and receive support.
Tip 5: Make a List and Prioritize tasks
When we are overwhelmed with stress and a hundred things to do, its easy to become frozen and stop making steady progress. A way to help this is to make a list, prioritize tasks and pick one at a time. It's simple but it works. Accept that you can't do everything at once or in the timing you wish you could. There's only so much you can do at one time.
Tip 6: Invest in Self Care
Caring for yourself in a disaster or when facing trauma can feel selfish or impossible but you can't help others or get things done if you're not ok so be good to yourself. In the end you'll feel better, have more to offer and get more done.
Tip 7: Give and Receive Support
Receiving support is important if you have been highly impacted by a trauma. Reach out to your community and to agencies who can help you along the way. You deserve support during your time of need. Its ok to not have the bandwidth to help others right now. When you recover, so will your capacity to give.
If you haven't been as highly impacted as others, you may find that you can offer your time, skills and support to others who have been. Try to figure out the amount of time you're available and ways you'd like to help. Then let people know what you can and can't do. This will help you give in a grounded, clear way and allow those who need your help to accurately plan for your assistance.
Remember that it's not always obvious who is experiencing a high level of impact during a disaster or other trauma. There are a lot of factors that determine this including one's history and how much trauma they have experienced in the past.