If there is 1 thing in this life I know to be true, and that science continues to discover new support for every year, it is that we may change our responses to “stressful” events and scenarios, thus improving our wellbeing, and ceasing to undermine our health. A University of Alberta study shows us once more, we have reason to celebrate our capacity to change.
Research
Each of the girls in Dr. Leipert’s research had lived much of their lives in the rocky terrain of northern British Columbia. These girls had lived with a rather distinctive group of risk factors; the bitter cold, attitudes concerning sex, threats posed by local wildlife, and very limited funds. These weren’t jagged dangers, they were simply a method of life, and were present daily.
After Dr. Leipert had compiled her findings, she found the three major strategies which were accountable for their resilience: Becoming what she called “hardy”, making positive meanings or “stories” in their position in the North, and supplementing what the North had to offer. All these women had learned to become self reliant, had followed different religious or spiritual beliefs, had developed a liking for its outdoor activities like camping, skiing and fishing, learned indoor activities like painting, sculpture, or quilting, and had decided to volunteer for community classes and activities.
Take into account
Notice that all the activities or behaviours above were learned, or selected. The resilience they had developed wasn’t some genetic gift or spontaneous occurrence, they’d taken active roles in making the experience of their life they were living, and the amount of resilience they’d developed. I’m frequently asked what I consider the function of DNA, or our genetic makeup, and a propensity to get specific “strengths” and “flaws” or traits.
Make no doubt about it; there can not not be a genetic function in our lives. Just being alive is hereditary. However, because at this point and time, there’s very little we can do to change our genetic makeup, I’ve made it my life’s work to concentrate on the pieces of our experience which we are able to influence.
What can we learn from these rugged women of Northern British Columbia? First of all, we can take, or not, the quality of our lives will involve an active part on the part. When I work one on one with customers who want to make a change in their own lives, I utilize leading edge tools and strategies to aid them in doing this.
Keep in mind
As strong as some of the tools are though, unless I convey one thing specifically to every client before we start, the resources will be useless: every customer is expected to work hard. The legendary Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi was a brilliant coach to make sure, but were it not for the football players who were dedicated to carrying out the tasks he assigned, as he had been to making them, the entire world would have never heard of Vince Lombardi.
Know this: “Bad” stuff will happen. The question is that, are you familiar with how you’ve responded to the”bad” stuff that has happened previously, and how much time it has prevented you from being as successful as possible? We can stop reacting and begin responding the moment we opt to have an active part in how we’ll interact with “life” in the future. To bury our head in the sand and hope that nothing else “bad” occurs isn’t just ineffective, it is downright dangerous and deceptive. Consider a Pin ball Machine; pick now to stop being the “ball”, and make the choice to become the “flipper.”
Final note
The ball is at the mercy of everything else about it, but the flipper, now that is another story. While the flipper can’t control 100 percent of what happens within that system, it may influence the results to varying degrees. How can we change these”varying degrees” in our favor? There was a kid that had his name at the number one position on pretty much every game in the construction. Was John Barron the receiver of some unique genetic code for aracade game command?
No, John was a “master” for one very good reason; anytime of day you walked into the arcade, John was playing and getting better. John could smoke me Asteroids since he’d played ; he practiced every day of his life, and had so refined his arcade game abilities. Look back through the guide, and take a while to discover ways to apply the three major strategies employed by the Northern girls to your life. Keep in mind, whoever said that old dogs can not learn new tricks, was likely a pitiful trainer with young dogs also. Regardless of how you have responded in the past, know you could learn how to react in new and more useful ways.