🔥Welcome to our first community newsletter!🔥
How to cultivate a resilient mindset to navigate challenges with ease.
Focus Topic: Resilience
Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
Welcome,
Thank you for joining me on this journey of bringing creatives together to support one another. Each month, I’ll be choosing a focus topic based on conversations shared with our community of creatives and providing a couple helpful resources to help inspire and lift you up as a creative. Our first newsletter is all about resilience, our steadfast companion, empowering us to bounce back, learn, and thrive in the face of challenge!
2023 was a tough year for working creatives. I’ve heard many stories of layoffs, being out of work, and difficulty landing opportunities. The economy was a bit shaky and unpredictable with inflation this year; this led to budget cuts, major layoffs, and an extremely competitive job market whether you were in-house or freelance. It hit me too! Leaving many of us out of work, waiting by the phone, feeling lost and discouraged as we navigated so much uncertainty. Yet, when things got tough, I saw so many of us get creative by reinvesting back in ourselves and our careers, connecting with each other, tightening up our portfolios, and prioritizing passion projects—in other words, planting seeds for new opportunities. Way to show off your resilience!
It can be so hard to pick ourselves back up when we get knocked down. I've stumbled, fallen, and faced rejection many times. Big falls can even bring about feelings of shame about not belonging, that we’re somehow flawed and undeserving, leaving us feeling stuck and afraid to get back out there again. I’ve learned that building resilience requires facing vulnerability without blaming myself for what’s outside of my control or donning heavy armor, but instead an opportunity to look inward to recognize old thought patterns and triggers, make space for self-compassion, and find fresh perspective to turn hardship into a pathway for growth.
Join me as we dive into resilience, uncovering the strength within adversity. I’ve got some practical insights and exercises to fortify your well-being and explore that resilience isn't just a trait; it's a skill that can be honed, a mindset that can be cultivated.
Wishing you a happy holiday and a resilient journey ahead!
Shawn
The three secrets of resilient people
Dr. Lucy Hone's TEDx talk unveils the three secrets of resilient people—realism, acceptance, and self-agency. Embracing these principles empowers individuals to navigate challenges with a balanced mindset, acknowledging realities, fostering acceptance, and building inner strength. Watch her powerful story of moving forward with actionable insights on cultivating resilience in the face of adversity.
Realism: “Resilient people get that shit happens... When the tough times come, they know that suffering is part of every human existence, to stop you from feeling discriminated against when the tough times come.”
Acceptance: “They focus on the things they can change and accept what they cannot.”
Self-Agency: “Resilient people ask themselves, “Is what I’m doing helping or harming me?”
OK, so shit happens. What can I do about it?
Finding acceptance through building your “internal Locus of Control”
An excerpt and exercise from “Building resilience through locus of control” by Mackayla Paul
Locus of Control is a psychological concept that refers to the degree to which an individual believes they have control over the things that happen to them.
When someone has an internal Locus of Control, they feel that they are in charge of themselves and their circumstances. They focus on what they can control and do what they can to make the best of the situations they find themselves in.
On the other hand, those with an external Locus of Control focus on things that are external to them and outside of their control. They are often described as people who see what happens to them as being governed by external forces like fate, luck, chance, or other concepts like this.
Having a high external Locus of Control can lead to decreased motivation levels, pessimism, and heightened stress.
This is a useful tool to use in exploring your internal Locus of Control. When you look at the [below] diagram, which areas of your life do you spend the most time thinking about and actively trying to change or influence to achieve desired results? Which areas bring you the most stress? This could be an indicator of where your Locus of Control currently sits.
By actively cultivating an internal locus of control, focusing on what we can influence, and harnessing the power within ourselves, we pave the way for heightened resilience—a key to navigating life's challenges with strength and fortitude.
Download a copy of this exercise
A meditation practice for self-agency, calling forth your resilience superpower
Use this practice to dig down to find your strength in adversity: It's about trusting your gut and tapping into your own inner wisdom to overcome challenging circumstances you may be working through. Remember, resilience is about finding your strength in adversity. You've got this!
I leave you today with a quote from Carl Jung that I came across while reading Brené Brown’s “Daring Greatly” a great book on courage and resilience!
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.
― Carl Jung
Remember! We have the incredible power within us to not just endure but to use our creativity to emerge from every experience stronger and more resilient than ever. 💪
Thank you for joining me! I’d love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, or a story you’d like to share with this community. Hit me up!
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