During our lives, we will inevitably face our personal challenges: an unexpected death, a terminal diagnosis, a natural disaster, or just being in the wrong place at the right time—or the right place at the wrong time.
We can’t avoid them, we can’t wish them away, and we can’t ignore them by hiding our heads in the sand of positive thinking.
What we can do is be ready so that when we turn past that quiet street corner and life unexpectedly jumps out from nowhere and slaps us across the face, we are prepared.
How do we prepare ourselves so we are best able to withstand, overcome, and even grow from these difficult experiences?
In the most recent edition of the magazine Alzheimer’s Today, the article “Finding (and Building) Resilience” reviews the book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges by Jonathan M. DePeirro, M.D., Steven M. Southwick, and Dennis S. Charney. In the book, the authors share what they learned from reviewing the extensive research on resiliency and what they learned from talking with individuals they identified as “tremendously resilient”: individuals who had experienced significant trauma such as 9/11 life-altering injuries and global conflict.
So, what can we learn from their research that could help us when we face life’s challenges? The authors identified the following ten “tried-and-true methods” used by the “tremendously resilient” so they were better able to weather and recover from adversity.
- Confronted their fears.
- Maintained an optimistic but realistic outlook
- Sought, accepted and provided social support.
- Imitated sturdy role models.
- Relied on an inner moral compass.
- Turned to religious or spiritual practices.
- Attended to their health and well-being.
- Remained curious, pushing themselves to learn new things.
- Approached problems with flexibility and, at times, acceptance.
- Found meaning and growth during and after their traumatic experience.
When we face life’s challenges, whether it is caring for a loved one 24/7 or learning of a cancer diagnosis, it’s often hard to find the strength to persevere. But these ten methods can help us be more resilient and live our best life possible.
Brain Tease: See if you have heard this one before. And if you have, can you remember the answer?
A New York car salesman tells his two sons to race their cars to Atlantic City to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose car is slower will win. The brothers, after wandering around Manhattan aimlessly for days, ask a gas station attendant for advice. After hearing the advice, they jump into the cars and race as fast as they can to Atlantic City. What did the gas station attendant say?
Over his seven-decade career, this actor, comedian, and filmmaker is one of only twenty-one entertainers to win the EGOT: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. For this week’s “Remember When” question, who is the comedian that won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967) and directed the hit comedies Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974)? E-mail your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, call 541-296-4788, or send it with the 1960 comedy Album 2000 Year Old Man that he recorded with Carl Reiner.
The UCLA coach who retired in 1975 after winning ten men’s basketball national championships in twelve years was John Wooden. I received correct answers from Doug Nelson, Donna Mollet, Judy Kiser, Bruce Johnson, Jess Birge, Dave Lutgens, Steven Woolpert, and Bob Haechrel who is this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket.
And for the week before, what you were NOT supposed to put on the dinner table was your elbows. For that question I received correct answers from Nancy Higgins, Sam Bilyeu, Jay Waterbury, Mike McFarlane, Pat Evenson-Brady, Donna Mollet, Judy Kiser, Dave Lutgens, Marny Weting, Debbie Medina, Shelley Hinatsu, Craig Terry, Tom Schaefer, Eva Summers, Tina Castanares, David Liberty, Lana Tepfer, Keith and Marlene Clymer, Bruce Johnson, Doug Nelson, and this week’s winners of a quilt raffle ticket Ken Jernstedt and Lana Tepfer who both remember reciting “Mabel, Mabel strong and able, get your elbows off the table.”
I missed Rebecca Adams for the song “The Name Game”. And speaking of “The Name Game”, Marty Powell was the only person who took up my dare and sang it when I saw him last week. Well, maybe sang was too loose of a description!
Well, it’s been another week trying to hit the nail on the head while missing my thumb. Until we meet again, remember the lessons learned from the mistakes forgotten.
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” John Wooden, basketball coach and all-American guard for Purdue University
Answer: ˙sɹɐɔ ɥɔʇᴉʍs oʇ ɯǝɥʇ ploʇ ʇuɐpuǝʇʇɐ ǝɥ┴
