• Popularity of building resilience
• What it isn’t; i.e., an excuse for poor behaviour by others and a way of overburdening people with more and more demands.
• What is emotional resilience? Idea of the Weeble, a 1970s children’s toy which those of a certain age will know the strap line instinctively, ‘Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!’ This is the definition of emotional resilience according to the Challenge of Change model.

Introduction to the Challenge of Change; thirty years of empirical research based on immunology and cardiovascular measurements (scientific rather than anecdotal) in response to the question, ‘What is it that makes some more emotionally resilient and others more vulnerable to stress?’ based on the premise that resilience is something we can learn and develop in ourselves, not something we are either born with or we aren’t (this therefore is a very empowering approach). Five factors/behaviours have been identified as compromising emotional resilience; rumination, perfect control, toxic achieving, avoidance coping and emotional inhibition, and three factors/behaviours that support emotional resilience; detached coping, sensitivity and flexibility.  Emphasis is made that all of these factors are learned behaviours (even if there is a genetic element, we still learn them through relationships) and so with practice, we are able to promote the healthy ones and reduce the unhealthy ones.  In order to do this practice, the Challenge of Change has a four step programme; waking up and staying awake, controlling attention, detaching and letting go.  Time will be given to introduce the eight factors/behaviours and the four step programme. 

• Looking at what resources are; internal and external (although for all to have benefit they will ultimately be internalised…how they make us feel better is the crucial quality of a resource) and identifying our own personal resources using guided imagery.
• The theories behind resourcing (Levine, 2005; Sills, 2009).
• Identifying resources and what they do for us.
• The difficulties we might have remembering and accessing resources when we need them most.
• One important resource we can develop is our imagination.  We can, with focused practice, use our imagination to serve us rather than disempower us (this is rumination, where our imagination is hijacked into catastrophising).
• Recognising that resourcing is an ongoing practice.

Lecture summary to be confirmed.

This talk is the first of two, the second of which is at the same time on Saturday 21st May.   There is a significant difference between doubt and self-doubt.  Doubt and uncertainty are a normal feature of everyday life.  Feelings of doubt have both advantages and disadvantages.   Advantages include caution before action – “Look before you leap” as the saying goes.  But doubt can also lead to uncomfortable feelings of anxiety.  This is neatly captured in my stress equation; Stress + Uncertainty x Urgency.  Whilst feelings of doubt are bad enough, when we allow our feelings of doubt to migrate into feelings of self-doubt we experience a significantly different state of psychological unrest. I refer to self-doubt as confidence-cancer as it can significantly affect our entire self-confidence.   Unfortunately when people get trapped within feelings of self-doubt they can adopt strategies to cope with these feelings, such as perfectionism and narcissism, which are ultimately counterproductive in the long term.  This talk will discuss and explain the connection between these themes as well as describing how to avoid slipping into their counter-productive strategies when experiencing doubt and self-doubt.

Lecture summary to be confirmed.