Reel Resilience

The Challenge of Change is the brand of our resilience programmes and for many of our clients there are changes and challenges a plenty at the moment. Why not take a break from the pressures for a little and grab some popcorn: we have three short videos to remind you what helps build resilience to the pressures of change.

On our courses we define stress as ruminating about emotional upset and while some of that upset can be based on actual experiences, a lot is worrying about things that haven’t happened yet and may never happen. The opposite, - being resilient, is to not let the mind race away with what if and if onlys, control your attention, and have a detached perspective.

Our first movie clip is from Bridge of Spies which is based on real events about a Russian spy caught by the Americans. In this clip we see the spy Rudolf Abdul (played by Mark Rylance) in conversation with his lawyer James B. Donovan (played by Tom Hanks.) In the first section Abdul is facing the death chair for spying in the USA, and then later the possibly of being executed by Russian forces. His lawyer asks Abdul if he is worried, and his response comes as a surprise. Watch what he says:

On our Challenge of Change Resilience courses we build a model of the mind as a house. On the ground floor of the house we are emotional and lack perspective. We get caught up in our thinking, dwell on problems, and make it all about “me.” In this state The Thought controls you - for instance, the thought I might fail. In contrast from the Loft you, The Thinker, are in control of your emotions and behaviour. From the Loft we can regain perspective and focus on performance and solutions. In this clip from the TV series Schitt’s Creek, David is about to sit his driver’s license. His sister Alexis is with him. In their dialogue one of them is on the ground floor and one of them is not. Watch and see who.

The key to moving from the ground floor to the Loft is to put into practice Steps 1 and 2 of the programmes – Waking up and Taking Control of your Attention. Sometimes we can quickly switch from the stressed or ruminating mind to the present, detached mind. Other times we need a circuit breaker.

On the courses we illustrate how focusing on the senses, body, or breath can act as circuit breakers.

In the next clip All Black Dan Carter uses a focus on his feet as a circuit breaker to help him move from the ground floor where he is ruminating (he calls it red brain) to the Loft (he calls it blue brain) where he has a calm mind and can focus on kicking the ball between the posts.

The clip is on TikTok and Instagram and I have copied both links:

Tiktok

Instagram

Or use the QR code.

I hope you enjoyed the three reels which show some of the steps to real resilience:

• Stop ruminating. It doesn’t help.
• Get a detached perspective and let go of negative emotion. Others are probably not caring as much as you!
• Regain control of your attention so that in high-pressure situations you can focus.

If you'd like to know more about our work, send us an email or give Cynthia Johnson a call on 021 443 652