HEALTH & WELLNESS
Editor’s Note:
Bold Blind Beauty is thrilled to share with you snippets from Becky Andrews’ new book “Cultivating our Resilience Workbook/Journal.” Adversity strengthens and builds resilience; Becky will share weekly practices to help us become more resilient. ~Steph
Hello All
Thanks for following along as we cultivate resilience. You are resilient! Sometimes we might question our resiliency. It is a process and a journey. It is those practices that help us be transformed through difficult times. It is the act of getting up another day. We each have our paths to cultivate resilience. It is a personal path and what works well for one person may not be as helpful to someone else. These practices are concepts that have been consistently shown to help us in our resilient journey. I would love to hear what is helping you in your resilience.
Recently, a friend and I were discussing some pretty heavy topics of the day. It was indeed a deep, meaningful conversation. And then, she asked me – what is bringing you joy right now? For a moment I had to take a pause. Oh yes, joy. We can find joy even in our challenging times.
What is bringing me joy right now? As I paused to answer this question my thoughts naturally shifted, a smile came to my face and I felt some joy pondering this question.
This leads us to practice seven: Finding joy, laughter, play in each day.
At times, taking a step back to find something that is funny in the moment can help us move through a difficult process. Noticing humor in a situation places us in an observant role.
Every time you are able to find humor in a difficult situation you win.
~Avinash Wandre
Perhaps you intentionally find that movie to watch that will make you laugh. Perhaps you start your day with the challenge to make sure you find some way to laugh in the day.
- You reach out to that friend who is able to make you laugh.
- You take a few moments in the day to find the lightness and humor.
- You make an effort to smile.
Did you know that smiling / laughter helps our bodies even if it is intentional? We get the benefits of the smile and laughter even if it feels a bit forced. Have you ever tried laughing yoga? Oh my, what an adventure. It is based on the theory that some voluntary laughter provides similar psychological and physiological benefits as spontaneous laughter. It involves laughter and playfulness.
The header photo is of me and two of my dear friends, who are also both visually impaired. I love that this moment was captured. In this moment we were going to take a picture after dinner together. What is making us laugh so hard is I was (blind and not aware) trying to pull in a fourth person into the picture that happened to be a man walking past us at the restaurant. As we realized this and I said my excuse me’s and apologies; we all broke out laughing. This poor man had no idea why this lady was trying to pull him into the photoshoot moment.
The laughter of this moment brought joy to a situation where the reality was that I couldn’t see and was pulling in a stranger for a photoshoot. It could have been a moment of some sadness, embarrassment – yet instead, it was such a funny moment together because we were able to laugh about it. Understandable there are times when we have those moments and it does not feel funny.
In the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale, 25 traits of resilience were listed. Be able to see the humorous side of things is on this list.
Practice Seven involves making sure you are getting some time to play, to laugh, to find the joy, and see the humor in a situation. Dr. Brene Brown in her ten guideposts to wholehearted living places Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance as one of these guideposts. We let go of being in control and what others think. Indeed, when we are called to cultivate resilience we are letting go of that sense of control.
So I go back to my friend’s question: What is bringing you joy right now? What can you do to bring some joy into your life amongst the challenging times? What makes you laugh? How do you create that intention to find the lighter side of things even for a few moments?
To find some joy amongst it all is to cultivate resilience.
For your reference here are the previous practices on resiliency:
- Practice one: Give yourself permission to feel
- Practice two: Self-compassion
- Practice three: Recognizing our strengths
- Practice four: Healthy boundaries
- Practice five: Mindfulness
- Practice six: Grit
About The Author:
Becky Andrews is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Small Business Owner – Resilient Solutions, Inc, and founder of the Daring to Own Your Story ™ Retreats. She is also the author of Look up, move forward – her memoir of Losing her eyesight and finding her vision.
You can follow her at:
- Facebook: Becky Andrews, Resilient Vision
- Instagram: @ becky__andrews
- Website: www.beckyandrews.info
Workbook:
Cultivating our Resilience Workbook/Journal will be out Fall 2020. Email Becky at becky.lpc@gmail.com to be on the waiting list or preorder.
Image Descriptions:
- Header: Photo of Becky and two friends laughing while standing outside of a restaurant.
- Becky is sitting on outdoor steps next to her guide dog, Georgie, a gorgeous yellow lab.