Health & Wellbeing Series - Session 2: Personal Resilience During Change

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everyone we'll just give it another minute until 11 o'clock and we'll kick off
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right well uh in our HOA uh in our
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well morning everybody um it's fabulous to be here with you um this morning and I guess beaming into a screen uh near
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you it's um great to to see that uh there is some sort of camera functionality today but I'm totally
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comfortable with cameras off um it's always sort of strange I can't see everyone on on the bottom thread anyway
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but um I hope that everyone is comfortable um and that you're looking forward to the next kind of hour um
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together this morning um and hopefully with the um I guess the pro close
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proximity uh with me standing in between um you and uh lunch um that perhaps some
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of you have your Kai with you for an early um early lunch as well well um so for those that haven't met me before my
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name is Alana Stone I'm a proud member of the New Zealand Defense Force dusted in a little bit of green um or kind of
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tny beigy green color um and I have been in the New Zealand Army as a psychologist uh now for coming up about
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19 years um so probably showing my age um but very proudly taking the hell now
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as the Director of New Zealand Defense Force psychology um and for those that don't know too much about us in the
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psychology directorate we cover a range of brief interventions across um areas such as psychological support to
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operations critical incidence resilience performance wellbeing um as well as internal sort of assessment and
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selection in psychatric use across Defense Force um we have a Dr dread of about 35 um psychologists across the
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motto and all three services and civil staff although we're a little Hollow so the numbers are a little bit less than
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that at the moment um so I'm normally based in Wellington H where I live with my Foo but um today I'm up in Linton um
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unfortunately the weather has followed me from Wellington up um to the manow 2 so um but yeah nice to be up here and
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nice to see the uh New Zealand Army psychology team based here in Lon today so um yeah I'm really pleased to be here
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um with you this morning um yeah I guess part of the initiative in supporting the well-being of our people um and I guess
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talking about a topic that is uh you know close to our hearts and psychology around building um personal resilience
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and um and change so before getting into things um just a little quick shout out to the
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team as well in the background um Wendy Shelly Frank and Ella who have been putting the series together um and
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supporting I guess with the uh uh it sort of magic it's certainly not my strength area um and we'll be assisting
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with managing the Q&A function I do have a few little um notes and points to pass on um so we are using the Q&A function
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across uh across the presentation and the chat function has been turned off so to access the function you can click the
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three dots at the bottom of your screen uh if you're on a mobile or an iPad type device um and you can click the Q&A
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function from the top navigation bar if you're on a laptop or desktop um if the option's not working because there has
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been some issues I think last week with some people accessing between the modern desktop um and and out of that system um
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please email your question to uh Shelly jisy um so that's shell s h l l y.g l l
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P um at nzz who will be able to post it on your behalf um in the Q&A function um
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and any questions that we don't get to today um we'll look to answer them outside the session and make them available through ddms um and we'll also
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share a recording of today um and the slides as well so everyone can um I guess sort of sit back and relax um and
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hopefully enjoy the next little bit of time that we have together um today um yeah so I think that's all my
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admin tasks which is good to get them out of the way um yeah so feel free to ask any questions as we go through and
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hopefully we'll get to them um at the end and um for those that we don't will get back to them and um yeah and I'll do
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my best to kind of answer them and and I'll do my best to stick to time I know I can go off piece on occasion so um and
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I don't have anyone here kind of checking and keeping me on task so um usually in a in a kind of inperson
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context you know people can rain me in so we'll see how we get on with that with our time as well today um all
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right so we're here today to talk a little bit about change and personal resilience during change so I thought a
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good place to start was to have a little bit of an explore around change itself um sort of why it matters to think about
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resilience and then what we can do to build our resilience during um you know during and an adaption to change um so
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that'll be a little bit of a roadmap um I don't have sort of segments or a scope it's probably a very like non-military
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thing to to do a tackle and and not have a scope slide but um but anyway that's our kind of road map for today um so I
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just want you to have a bit of a think I guess um you know for those that might be in in any groups or with others you know certainly feel free to have a
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conversation but um just thinking about change itself you know what are some of the the change that uh or changes or um
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kind of experiences of change that you might have going on at the moment or have recently kind of gone through um or
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is going on around you um and what are some of the things that you think about when you think of change just take a
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moment to kind of think about those two things so some changes that might be going on for you at the moment and and
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some of the things that you think about when you're think of
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change so I'm sure that um many of you will have um you know should have at
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least a couple of things that are kind of creating change uh for you in the background whether that sort of change
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that's going on around you like you know the process that we do find ourselves in you know across the public sector in
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alador and many context but but more so here in New Zealand Defense Force um and
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uh you know some of you might also be kind of grappling with uh you know small humans who who like to throw change in
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the mix on a constant and regular basis um I was having a a a with someone this
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morning about um you know you get kind of told when you're a new parent you know like get to the first few months
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and then and then you know you'll be in this new space and and so you kind of get there and then then all of a sudden there's another Milestone or another
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change or another thing that kind of comes up so there are they certainly present a constant state of change um
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there might be sort of change that uh is happening around us that's sort of impending um or that we don't really
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necessarily have control or influence over um and there's also change that we might drive ourselves so things that we
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might set a goal for uh things that we might say hey actually this isn't this isn't working well for me or I want to
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do something differently and that's the type of change um that we might be um encountering as
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well um and when we sort of think about you know you know what what do change what does what does change kind of evoke
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for me when I think about that um you know lots of people think of things like you know habits or hard work or
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something's going to be different or perhaps new or exciting um maybe also
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that there's an elements of sort of worry um anxiety um curiosity
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uncertainty perhaps a lack of control um and and also disruption whether that's
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positive or negative as well so one of the things that's kind of consistent um you know or or kind of a
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key feature of change is an element of sort of um uncertainty um so next slide so um and I
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guess the concept of sort of operating an uncertainty is what what has impact on us and how our brains sort of
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perceive and respond um so change itself speaks to a level of uncertainty and um
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where we might have our sense of control or predictability disrupted um so I
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guess it aligns to this concept of sort of vuka in the world that we sort of live in um is that there's constant sort
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of volatility um in the systems around us where they're not necessarily sort of predictable in any kind of way um and uh
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and certainly there's um you know elements of you know not having a full picture or or not being entirely sure
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how might pan out or what they might look like um and often it's sort of systems of systems or there's change
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within change um and and sort of that that concept I guess of vuka um and our
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brains sort of respond to that and try and make sense of of of what that means for
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us um and it also might be that we don't necessarily have a change that we're immediately kind of involved in but but
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in a context of sort of change around us and certainly what we're seeing you know as our you know Global setting kind of
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moving out of kind of you know postco and when we just coming through having been through and kind of coming to the
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tail end maybe hopefully of of a recession you know all of this is quite big change so when you sort of look back
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at at that period you know hopefully in in in time to come you know that that is a significant kind of period of change
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that everybody is is going through sort of globally so the only kind of um and I
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thought I'd throw this slide in here um I found this sort of you know somewhat T you know dispar type person but it it's
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greatek philosopher a hercus but a very sort of semi despy py type face um which
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I thought was quite funny when you're thinking about change but um I this this individual this sort of Greek
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philosopher was well known for the teachings around I guess the the ever um I guess the the notion of sort of a
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constant state of flux and that there's everchanging nature of the universe and the famous I think his quote was around
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like um no no um man ever steps into the same river twice so this constant sort
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of change in the things that are around us um and and that the only sort of constant I guess um was change itself so
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that it is always occurring around us um yeah and whether that's you know something that we're driving something
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that's kind of Just Happening you know in the background something that's thrust upon us and you know I guess the
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elements of that sort of concept of vuka certainly influences the way that we might perceive um you know the what that
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change means to us and that is because of this little Chestnut here the brain
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um and I guess uh you know spoiler alert uh something that we all have believe it
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or not um and they are incredibly uh complex and Incredibly clever um I I
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think in last week when we did the Stress Management um presentation we did a little bit of a deep dive into the
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sort of stress response but um just a quick kind of summary for those that weren't there last week um but there's
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something like 85 billion neurons which act as storage and they pass information
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through synapsis or connections through those neurons at speeds at over 500 kilometers an hour which is pretty
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impressive um your brain can light up a light bulb when it's just sort of humming at a low at a low Pace um and
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it's constantly scanning the environments around us to pick up sensory information so we process
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millions of pieces of information every second but can only consciously take in about 50 so our brain wants to Short cut
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uh it wants to compartmentalize it likes to create patterns it likes predictability uh and it sort of has the
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sense of wanting some stability to make sense of what's going on around us it likes to keep things simple um and and
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you know to add to matters to make it worse you know not only kind of contending with things that you're sort
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of you know visually sort of perceiving or visually not necessarily visually but sensing in the real uh world or
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environment around you but we're also uh you know your brain filter is through cognitions and thoughts and things that
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are going on inside our heads um and we have on average about 10 to 15,000
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thoughts a day which is pretty phenomenal um and so and we know that sadly most of these aren't necessarily
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positive and they tend to be caught in the future and in the Pres uh in the past so we don't often have those
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opportunities of kind of being in the present moment so um our brains interpret all of
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this information and this sort of sort of fabulously uh inbuilt um response resp uh which was you know an
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evolutionary response um where we our brain kicks and activates a response
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geared towards survival so known as the fight flight freeze response or the fal flight um and essentially it's really to
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ensure our survival so how are we how are our bodies and and our nervous systems uh able to kind of um you know
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get ready to embrace for for a threat or um I think I'm missing a component of my slide I don't know why it would be on
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animation um I another picture that I can't see maybe you can see it but essentially um whether our brain
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perceives something to be a threat or a reward um so uh and that activates our
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stress response so some levels of stress is useful and and we call that use
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stress or positive stress it sort of follows a bell curve if you can imagine that so at one end we've got this kind of quite positive stress that we can use
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to kind of motivate us keep us engaged keep performance High um and then we have this sort of you know Pi Zone in
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the middle and then at the other end we can have like too much sort of negative stress or distress um so that's kind of
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what what the stress respons have looked like so it's how our brain receives and responds to the information around it um
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which is made up of a myriad of sort of previous experiences perceptions um of
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of what we're kind of engaging with around us our belief sets our cognitions some of the contextual factors uh
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including how we're currently doing too at that time as to how we respond
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so because we're all human um and change is a is is a as a concept and an
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experience that our brain is perceiving um you know we do tend to kind of fall
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into patterns or typical patterns um in response to particular experiences or
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events and change can be seen as one of those so I've thrown in here a pretty well-known sort of change curve um kuer
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Ross model um developed some time ago now um but it's quite a common feature in a lot of the sort of change
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management Doctrine um or or or kind of training and and you can it's readily available online and we actually use
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these kind of Concepts or models of change there's some variance of of this type um out there but essentially they
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they describe the same process that there's there's a period of maybe a little bit of a dip and and and if
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people are kind of um you know implementing strategies or or should you know I don't want to deal with this
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right now we can have a little bit of an improvement but there kind of tends to be a little bit of a dip I guess in terms of you know our performance or
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perhaps our well-being or morale um our energy and um and as we kind of put strategies in place or kind of move
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through this phase of acceptance and sort of generating ideas to kind of you know cope with or adapt to change and we
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sort of have you know the rebuild or the positive um kind of loop back up um we
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use these kind of change models a lot um in in our role in Psychology within the New Zealand Defense Force and
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particularly so in in moments of um transition um of from change so for
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example in our um you know Operational Support context you know uh you know
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particularly the transition back from home there is a period where um you know individ individuals will have um you
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know perhaps in in a lated kind of you know initial part of honeymoon period coming home and and it does tend to sort
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of dip and and then pull back up and same again um you know if we responding to things like um or we' been involved
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in things like critical incidents where we have quite an intense sort of reaction it does take some time to sort of dissipate and perhaps dip before it
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kind of bounces back um up the other side um so I just sort of throw that out there there is a sort of a typical
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pattern and most people When approaching and and sort of experiencing some form of change will have this initial sort of
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um response reaction and um and that can be the same for you know when you're forming new habits as well so often you
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hear the S you know change change gets hard before it gets better so there is
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this kind of concept that as we're sort of relearning or kind of entering into a pattern of um you know what the change
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is is that it is it requires more energy it requires more Focus um and it is takes a little bit of a dip before we
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kind of get back up or or change or grow in a New Direction in the other side um
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and whilst change can also be really positive um it it's it can still be uh
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and lead to sort of quite amazing sort of Positive Growth and and resilience and the topics that we'll kind of talk
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about a little bit later on um there are some really common reactions as well that tend to come up um when we're kind
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of coping with change I guess that might not be um what we've kind of chosen um so change that might be kind of going
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around us or change that sort of thrust upon us or unexpected in some way um so those elements of sort of VCA um so
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distraction or sort of pretending oh this isn't happening to me or I don't want to worry about it right now can be
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quite useful in some in some context up to a point um CEST iing um I was kind of
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wondering whether I was going to be able to pronounce that word properly but catastrophizing um you know so having
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this sort of generalized sense of you know I can't cope or this is this is the worst thing or you know what am I going
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to do here it's you know all of this has changed all of this is worthless now um
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and and also um you know micromanaging can be can be quite a common um thing
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that that happens so you know I guess in the the context of sort of uncertainty or or or having gaps or sort of voids
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that our brain is sort of desperately trying to fill is sort of this this overwhelming kind of compulsion to
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almost sort of micromanage and and do everything that we can kind of uh control elements to sort of fill those
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voids and and gaps um and that's sort of quite related to sort of a a perfectionist type one which is you know
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really trying to control everything really tightly which can kind of lead to things like do out or um or or overwhelm
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as well so don't want to be all D and Glo but I just wanted to kind of cover some Basics around you know you know
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what some kind of typical responses and reactions are to change um
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yeah so um I guess if change is inevitable and we've kind of got change happening everywhere around us um and
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and perhaps some of the change that we you know don't really want to engage in um you know what and you know in some
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cases we might not have complete control over how our brain sort of perceives um change um you know what can we do what
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pck can we do so um one of those things that we can do is think about building resilience so um this is kind of
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segmenting through now kind of to sort of move on from change um into kind of the focus around sort of you know how we
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can build our resilience so um yeah so I guess the the
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question that I would be S throwing out and getting you know fabulous uh audio uh fabulous replies from everyone would
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be you know what how would you define resilience um and and often uh you know
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when people are asked to sort of think about resilience and what that means um you you hear things like the ability to
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bounce back so the ability to bounce back I pop these up umil ability to bounce back from adversity the ability
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to withstand adapt um or or grow following difficulty or challenge um so
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I guess like the picture suggest it's sort of you know growth despite adversity so um you know the outcome of
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successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences in a way that enables us to experience growth and
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and um have capacity I guess to adapt for the future and potentially even buffer uh impact um of future Challenge
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and and Adverse Events as well and I thought it's kind of
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important to cover a couple of things you sometimes sort of hear or or in the in the periphery of resilience um and so
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what resilience Isn't So resilience is not stressfree um you know the road to
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resilience is often f with challenge um and and experience of that challenge and
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adversity as well um so you know it's not always about sort of you know
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constantly being happy or constantly living in this state of kind of positive stress all the time um it is often
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filled with hardships Challenge and adversity and that's what gives us those experiences to know um you know that we
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we're able to kind of get you know get through that to grow and and to adapt into the future um and it's also not a
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just a trait that you're with so um many uh you know while there are some factors
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that might make individuals more resilient than others it's not a trait that people either possess or don't uh
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it does involve behaviors thoughts and actions that you can learn and develop over time um it's sort of like building
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a muscle so um and it does take um time and it does take intention and practice
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as well um yeah um another kind of um concept put
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these both up that I did want to sort of you know mention lots of people have probably seen this one before but um
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that sort of concept around a bucket model of resilience so it's sort of talking to the you know you can use
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whatever analogy like cut bucket it doesn't really matter but um you know the concept of having something that you
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know holds the sort of essence of you know your ability to to to be resilient and what fills you with um you know
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things that fill you with jaw that make you feel whole and complete um and that around us you know the the stresses the
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environments change things like that can kind of draw or pull those resources away from us um over time so we do want
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to be kind of conscious about you know what do we put in what can we learn and develop um that enables us to sort of
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approach the world around us from a greater capacity um as we go about sort of um you know the inevitable nature of
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things kind of drawing from us um as we move through as we move through life um
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and uh and this uh mental health Continuum is probably um good to sort of think about and draw
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from as well um I guess it's kind of the outcome of how the sort of manifest is
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out in mental health um and it essentially refers to a person's condition with regards to sort of psychological and emotional well-being
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um and this is the mental health Continuum model um and you know in in most contexts you know people will sort
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of oscillate in that sort of green and yellow space um and that that's what that's kind of every every day every day
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week can count every day you could potentially fluctuate right across um but but what we want to do is to sort of stay down in that sort of healthy you
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know healthy and reacting sort of green and yellow end um but we we have occasions or things that come up that we
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that might push us into this sort of you know orange and redend of the spectrum of mental health um and and I guess
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resilience can be seen as something that might be able to kind of springboard you back uh into kind of you know uh into
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that healthy and sort of reacting end of the mental health continue um but yeah I guess resilience is a essentially
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enables us to be able to kind of keep green or bounce back um and help us kind of oscillate in that area um you know in
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future challenges that change so when're thinking about you
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know how do we go about then building resence so if it's something that um is you know something that we can learn and
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develop um you know what what do we need to be doing here to be um building resilience um and I've sort of um broke
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these into a couple of um key areas um one around sort of healthy thinking and one around sort of concepts of wellness
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and well-being so I spend a little bit of time on both um and you know probably
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another sort of like spoiler alert like some most of the stuff won't be new um
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and and for the a lot of you that you know many of you that might have you know tuned in last week this was certainly some of the same same stuff
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that we talked about then and it's really just you know strategies that are really focusing on you um and and and
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your well-being and how you are and how you're showing up and and some strategies to kind of help some of the traps that we might get stuck in I guess
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um or easy easy to do um when we're not been kind of conscious and aware of um you know the impact that change can have
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on us um so yeah so we'll just kind of crack into it um I think I'm tracking
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okay for time but this is probably the point where we'll go um all all wheels off um so we're starting around s of
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healthy thinking to promote resilience um there's there's a few things I wanted to kind of touch on and talk about um
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we're not going to have a lot of time to get into each of them but um the big one at the top uh there was really around
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flexible thinking and this kind of concept around it being adaptable and adaptable thinking and it's certainly a
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skill that you can train um and that you've got to practice kind of um to sort of you know get in the uh get in
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the um routine of sort of being able to have that sort of ability to kind of you know you know situation occur is
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you know how you're responding to that and then how do you kind of process that um and so flexible thinking sort of talks to that and it's kind of a core
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skill um that we want to kind of keep as as kind of the almost like the end goal like what we want to be kind of
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continually working on because it's sort of like an outcome um and some of the ones that are underneath we've got
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cognitive reframing acceptance you know focusing on control and optimistic thinking um and I didn't put it on there
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but what we talked about uh last week in the Stress Management um presentation was really around like things like mindfulness and breathing and being
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present so those things can all help us um you know be Flex be flexible in our
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thinking which is a real key um sort of healthy thinking skill um when we uh you
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know in response to change and and and dealing with change around us so um the
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concept of um you know being able to or flexible thinking we'll just start I guess with them on there and the concept
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of being able to kind of reframe um change Take On A New Perspective uh generate ideas and solutions and and
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movement away from sort of rigid thinking so um you know rigid thinking is sort of you know being stuck in well
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I can't do this any other way or you know if if I am you know uh let's say
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you're putting a change in place um you know and uh let's say because it's raining here in London right now um you
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know I I wanted to go for a you know to do a workout today at lunchtime or something like that um but it's raining
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so I can't I just can't do it I mean that would be an example of sort of rigid thinking and flexible thinking
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might be like well how else or what else could I do um instead could I do a workout indoors or could I put it do I
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have my rain jacket could I do a run and rain or is there a gym nearby or something like that so it's sort of about that ability to be mentally agile
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and think about alternative Solutions which sounds probably quite simple but it can be quite hard to kind of coax
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ourselves into doing that particularly when there's um you know an element of kind of stress or distress that's
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occurring in the background um and for those that sort of tuned in um last week
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um when we talked about the stress response um you know in terms of our brain you know where where we tend to
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sort of um lose some of our ability to kind of have focus on is the frontal Lo of our brain which is really dealing
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with kind of complex thinking decision making things that require a lot of energy and it moves to the more sort of
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sensory um kind of a motive part of our brain and I guess in terms of focus and
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so you know flexible thinking can be quite hard to engage in in the moment or when we're experiencing stress or dist
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distress um but uh you know flexible thinking I guess that that's the kind of
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construct and and we we I'll see how we're going for time we'll probably roll through like an activity of how you might do this um but uh what was I going
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to say um there's other ways that you can kind of generate flexible thinking there um you know even just as simple as
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kind of been curious um Imagination so activity where you might be kind of generating different solutions or um you
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know different ideas for something so those are really you know fundamental kind of um you know exercises and
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activities you can do particularly for those of you that have kids um I know I shared since yeah so my um we have a
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fabulous one of my fabulous small humans um can be quite a quite a
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catastrophizer uh when things go wrong um and get quite stuck in like you know
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something happens it's like I don't know um I'm not too sure they can be so small
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I don't know my my I can't find my hair brush though my hair's mattered I'll never like my my hair will fall out like
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big kind of global uh event sequence that happens and um and so and gets
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really kind of focus in on that and so one of the core things we're really trying to work on um is around that
30:22
ability to kind of think flexibly what else could we you know what else could we do and could we use something else instead of your hairbrush is there
30:28
another one that we could use or is there um you know could we use a fork um you know so um thinking of all the kind
30:35
of aerial mermaid Vibes so um it's just about that idea of kind of what are some other ways of thinking about the
30:41
situation or the thing that's happening um at the moment so that that's an examp example of of that um yeah but
30:47
imagination even games where you're kind of generating you know different possible sequences of action so things
30:53
like um chess B gamon um even suduku potentially but you know things that are
30:58
kind of encouraging you to kind of think about what of the possible UNO card game and we're playing a bit of that at home
31:04
at the moment so um you know things that are kind of helping you sort of generate what could I do what you know what could
31:10
be some options and then kind of rolling through with with um with the course of action so um yeah rigid thinking can
31:17
lead to catastrophizing um so being able to stop generate other perspectives um can be really helpful um yeah another
31:26
kind of way that you can think about you know uh flexible thinking uh in the moment would be um you know generating
31:33
what are the other um ideas or other ways that I could look at this or how would other people um think about the
31:38
same situation right now so if you've got a couple of people that you could kind of draw on what would blah blah blah think about this um you know look
31:45
at context uh so you know is this important right now and what elements can I control in this particular
31:52
situation is there parts that I can't um you know time so uh how important will
31:57
this be in one month and or sorry in a week in a month in a year so sometimes kind of putting that into perspective as
32:03
well can be useful and also the Contex too so is there something about this um particular situation that I can look at
32:10
the positive so um it sort of draws on a few things that are kind of um below the flexible thinking on the slide but uh
32:16
sometimes just going through you know a sequence or a process like that can be quite helpful and sort of generating and
32:22
and and kind of going through flexible thinking so you know what are other perspectives or others you know what's
32:27
the context is you know what's important what can I control um time will this be important or is this how important will
32:34
this be in a week and month a year and content so what what are some of the positives that I might be able to see in
32:40
the situation at hand at the moment um I'll leave flexible thinking for now and then I've I've got another
32:46
activity that we could go back to um if if we we have enough time um cognitive
32:52
reframing so this is sort of much much a similar sort of thing it say about how
32:57
we can see things differently so um you know is there a more positive way or a more kind of yeah more positive way or a
33:04
less rigid way that we might be able to kind of think about the the thing that we're saying or thinking at the moment
33:09
so um you know things like you know all my plans are ruined uh right now you
33:15
know well you know way of reframing that could be um you know plans can change and I can adapt um so cognitive
33:22
reframing becomes quite important it's quite a skill um and it is worth you know having a having a go at kind of if
33:28
you notice something that you've se you feel like it's quite a you know a big statement it's quite a firm or rigid
33:34
sort of thought is going well how else could I look at that and how else could I say that in a way that kind of enables
33:40
me to have a pathway for Change and a pathway for sort of moving through that um the next one sort of acceptance um
33:48
and this is around um I guess you know what comes to mind is sort of you know Elsa's um Frozen sort of Let It Go so uh
33:56
it's really around um you know accepting the situation for what it is and sometimes just being able
34:02
to kind of you know take a breath uh you know and and pause and and kind of
34:07
notice um and and and let go um of the response to the situation and um a
34:14
popular sort of effective therapy type um act acceptance commitment therapy
34:19
sort of draws on this notion of acceptance at its core around um you know accepting the situation for what it
34:25
is uh noticing how you might be responding so um you know yeah so
34:31
drawing into the present uh accepting the situation for what it is noticing kind of how you're feeling um and
34:37
detaching from that um thought or emotion as an anchor and sort of letting it and letting it kind of pass by so not
34:43
getting invested and and kind of chewing uh chewing into the kind of responses um
34:49
and sort of drawing then on your values and what's important um as a way to kind
34:54
of then move forward from there so um that one's you know it it's quite a useful one particularly when there's
35:01
that sort of rumination or um you know there's a lot of time spent kind of in
35:07
inside uh you know and you might not even notice you might be going about your day and and and you're thinking
35:13
about some of the stuff the CH changes or things that are going on stresses in the background um and and you might not
35:19
notice until you get to a point you're like I've been thinking about that you know for such a long period of time and it's useful to kind of go what what
35:26
exactly was that what what is the thought that I'm thinking you know how is that making you feel um and then some
35:33
people can use uh you know can use it watching it sort of float away or cloud
35:38
like Let It Drift Away um you know and and then focus on something that's important to or a value that you might
35:45
have um that that that you hold important to you um so that can be quite a useful um kind of concept or construct
35:52
when you're kind of thinking about you know enabling that flexible thinking to occur as well
35:59
um focusing on what you can control um so this is one that um is a uh what what
36:07
we could kind of think of is if they've got sort of spheres of influence so you know there's a whole you know in
36:12
situations there's a large element that you're not necessarily going to be able to control so there might be change
36:18
going on around us um there might be um you know if there's a situation that's going on there might be elements that
36:24
are really without your ability to kind of influence any outcome and so it's about sort of thinking you know what
36:30
what can I control what can you control in this particular situation um and identify what those pieces might be and
36:36
then make a plan to do those small things and celebrate um I guess the movement or the progression on those
36:42
small things so um that can be a nice way to kind of you know think flexibly and kind of um I guess sometimes
36:48
situations can seem so big that um they're almost overwhelming that you know well I can't I can't do this at all
36:55
um or I can't get through this or um you know I'm not going to be able to do this um and so bringing it back in and
37:01
focusing on the things that you were able to kind of shift or change um Can can be useful way of um kind of you know
37:08
breaking down and and focusing on things that are achievable um optimistic thinking um is
37:14
the last one that I sort of had up on there um and this is really around um yeah I guess being positive thinking
37:22
positively um and there's some pretty good science behind the the kind of health benefits that you know having
37:28
optimistic thinking can have um and it's luckily something that we can train pretty inexpensively um it's something
37:34
that we can practice just by you know even um simple activities like gratitude journaling which may feel a little
37:40
awkward um when we start doing activities like that um but that so um
37:45
so uh gratitude journaling is is the the concept of um you know at the end of
37:51
every day or even the beginning of every day being able to kind of write down um you know two or three things that you're really grateful for or that have gone
37:57
well for you or if it's a day ahe you know what you're looking forward to that day or things that you're going to hold
38:02
as important to you that day and being grateful for that um so that it's about
38:08
this sort of concept of retraining our brains to kind of think in that sort of you know the more optimistic way um our
38:14
brains do do kind of have that sort of threat lens overlaid over the front so
38:20
it can be quite easy to fall into kind of you know picking up on critiquing and um and not spending enough time kind of
38:27
you know training our brain to think in a in a positive sort of optimistic way about things um yeah so it's really
38:33
around sort of retraining the brain so um and uh and the other kind of elements
38:38
here I hadn't put up um were just around that sort of concept of mindfulness so that's a core skill on on kind of being
38:45
in the prison and being really mindful about the things that you're kind of experiencing and feeling and and and
38:50
bringing yourself back into the present that kind of underpins a lot of these um kind of healthy thinking habits um
38:58
so I've just rambled and I feel like if we were in person I'd probably be like let's have a break um but uh what we
39:06
might do uh is is um I'll just talk through like a a quick couple of minutes
39:12
a quick sort of flexible thinking exercise that you could do um you know at home when you're thinking about
39:17
change and you're thinking about you know something that might be coming up um and and how you can kind of generate
39:23
those sort of options and um yeah kind of engage in a flexible thinking process um so if you um you know if you had a
39:31
piece of paper and in the middle you had uh you you wrote the the change all the all the tasks that you're trying to to
39:37
think about or trying to look at a new way um and then on you know top doesn't
39:42
doesn't matter where but you know top left you could go right well how um How Could you um you know respond to this
39:50
change what are some options what are some ideas that you could um or how how you might respond or how you might kind
39:56
of act or um what you might Implement to kind of um embed this particular change
40:01
so thinking about the things that you could do um and uh you know down on the
40:07
bottom um underneath that you could uh put I guess you know what are some concerns or some worries or anxieties or
40:13
some things that you're kind of you know you you're feeling about this kind of change or thing that you're trying to
40:19
achieve um and then up on your top uh right uh you might have um you know what
40:24
could you do to um help solve or or reduce some of those worries and
40:30
anxieties and and how um you know how uh yeah how could you um how could you kind
40:37
of manage those or sort of put strategies in place that can minimize those um and then down on the bottom
40:42
right um you know what's important to you to keep in mind so what do you value what are some things that are really
40:48
important to you that you want to kind of hold um in your in your um uh you
40:54
know in your line of sight I guess as you kind of navigate through um change or solving the problem um that you have
41:01
so um yeah so that that simple little exercise to kind of go around in a quadrant um and that can help um just
41:09
sort of generate that ability to think flexibly in terms of you know what are some different options that I've got to
41:14
explore you know what could I do to kind of help manage or mitigate some of the things that I might um be feeling or
41:20
worried or anxious about at the moment um and what do you want to hold important to you as you kind of navigate
41:27
through um the period of change as well so that's an example of like a flexible um
41:32
thinking exercise that you can do it's not um you know intended for a you know in the- moment sort of Stress Management
41:38
technique but certainly you know if we're thinking about um you know developing flexible thinking over time
41:44
like activities like that can be really helpful all right so I'm going to move
41:50
on from um healthy thinking and um get into sort of the broader Concepts around wellness and well-being um so I I hope
41:57
that I haven't talked too quickly through those I'm absolutely happy to answer questions um on these kind of
42:03
techniques um or strategies I think maybe something that you know that's worth kind of acknowledging is that
42:09
these don't necessarily all come you know instantly and they certainly can um
42:14
can be difficult to kind of throw in in in the moment situations but you know being mindful of these and thinking you
42:21
know how can I how can I reframe this how can I um you know focus on what's inside my control
42:27
um and and and how could I see this from a different perspective and how could I see this in a more positive way um can
42:34
be really useful sort of strategies to engage in um when we're thinking about change or or noticing that we might be
42:40
reacting to change in a particular
42:45
setting all right so uh Wellness or wellbeing so um you don't need to close your eyes I
42:52
can't see what you're doing you can stare at me you can steer into space it doesn't doesn't matter too much but um I
42:57
I think it's useful sometimes uh yeah so close your eyes and not not going to do
43:04
anything weird um it's going to be here uh you can still watch if if that's what you'd like to do but I just take a
43:09
moment to think um about what um you know what do you think of immediately
43:14
comes to mind when you think about Wellness or well-being so just take a moment so some
43:21
of the first images that come to your mind
43:28
so many search online you know when you when you're typing in particularly nowadays around sort of Wellness or
43:34
well-being um it shows people in a state of Zen connecting with nature stopping pausing Solitude relaxing running uh
43:41
wearing lra uh totally all and being totally in control of of kind of what's
43:47
going on around them and there is some um you know and for some people that is totally achievable this is like my you
43:53
know ideal uh future state but for me it is pip dream as well a girls weekend or
44:00
a thing that you might treat to yourself to as a luxury um or perhaps kind of
44:05
bending into some sort of like tripod uh type structure or shape um in a backward
44:11
dog or whatever makes you kind of feel a bit frightened rather than relaxed um or
44:18
you know potentially images um you know of of running and talking at the same time and then having an Ono conversation
44:25
um yeah makes you re think you know I don't know if this well-being thing is for me um but I I do hope um you know as
44:32
we kind of go through the next couple of slides that there there are some other I guess alternatives to this concept of
44:37
well-being and there's a lot of science uh and and good evidence behind why these types of activities work really
44:44
well so that kind of ability to kind of um stop be mindful and be in the present
44:49
uh to relax let ourselves actually stop um so even if we feel like we we might even have sedentary jobs um to be honest
44:58
our minds aren't very sedentary so there's often a lot going on kind of in the background so your brain is doing a
45:03
lot of work in the background and Ed is quite tiring as well so actually being able to kind of force yourself into the present um and and take stock of how
45:10
you're doing and where you are and grounding and all that sort of stuff has got some really good evidence behind it as is um connecting with nature um and
45:18
physical exercise as well um so I thought it's just sort of worth
45:23
mentioning this um you know because I I certainly sometimes think why I'm never going to get you know I can't do all
45:29
these sort of things and so um you know it's often just like little bits little bit at a time you know taking those
45:35
opportunities where you can rather than kind of going full full hog as I mean I'd love to do all this stuff all the
45:40
time but the reality is for most of us and that's not going to be the case so well-being as a construct I feel
45:48
like I've got to be careful of my time so wellbeing of as a construct um I guess is the state of being comfortable
45:54
happy or healthy according to psychologist so the um American Psychological Association is a state of
46:00
happiness and contentment with low levels of distress so not no distress but low levels um overall good physical
46:07
mental health and Outlook and a good or good quality of life um and you know luckily for us in in New Zealand we have
46:14
uh you know more holistic um models of uh I guess well-being and kind of Health
46:20
um and and an example of this is the tat tapu Farm model which um was uh created
46:26
by S jury in 1984 um and this is a really fabulous model that most people um in Al would be
46:34
familiar with but is really around kind of you know the fui or the meeting house concept which is you know four wheels
46:40
walls connected um I guess in standing within its uh F or land or Roots I guess
46:46
and that sense of belonging um so you have your tahana so your physical health
46:52
which is you know how we refuel our body how we care for it um and uh and
46:57
sometimes things are beyond our phys you know beyond our control with our physical self it's more about how you kind of careful what are you doing to
47:03
nourish your physical being uh the Taha wi or spiritual health so your
47:09
connecting connection sorry to the universe around us um and there's no right or wrong way to experience it this
47:16
um and and it might be a belief in a higher power it might be spirituality and it might be you know relationships
47:21
with people or your past or present um and future self as well um T um so this
47:29
is really around that emotional and mental health um your your conscious your thoughts your feelings so that's
47:35
where some of those kind of um you know healthy thinking techniques and and things that you can do to kind of really
47:40
help your brain sort of train in in the positive space and look after yourself um and uh and then tahao so really
47:48
around your social connections and um you know your engagements with others around you and where you kind of feel
47:54
your you know where where you get your kind of you know you your people you know the people that bring you Joy and
48:00
where you feel um you you get your energy from um so this can be a really useful model when we're thinking about
48:08
well-being being a broader construct or a broader concept than sometimes just what we might see um you know threshed
48:14
out across media and and things like that so the reality is there's so many ways um in which we can kind of focus on
48:21
building our well-being and our Wellness all that that kind of concept of filling the bucket um so that then we're able to
48:27
kind of you know demonstrate and exercise and adapt and build resilience over time um so you know all of these
48:35
different things so spending I think social connection is such an important one um and that's really around um you
48:42
know spending time with loved ones friends it could be pets um you know people that bring you Joy um and and for
48:49
some people um you know the time on their own and and that that kind of concept around um you know yeah
48:55
listening to music sitting up in a hammock getting some space and and um I know I talk a lot about kids here but I
49:01
think I'm still kind of like in the thick of in the thick of that part of life but um sometimes you know you you
49:07
just might need that moment of solitude just to just take a breath um and that brings immense Joy but equally on the
49:14
same vein in the midst of all the chaos you know taking a handful of moments to cherish you know the calm um you know in
49:22
between storms can be um really powerful for people as well but you know playing with kids um you know connecting with
49:28
friends and families commun Community groups um it could be around that sort of the the physical sense or their
49:34
activity so you know nourishing yourself getting out and moving uh good Kai um it could be Hobbies so a lot of people talk
49:41
about um you know get a lot of satisfaction from sort of like um hes
49:46
with hands so things like Pottery things that you're you know crafting gardening can be a really another big one um so
49:54
connecting with Nature's nature being outdoors um and savoring the present uh
50:00
and enjoying the present time as it is so there's a lot of evidence and practice um evidence around you know
50:07
activities like mindfulness and being um you know being physically in the present moment and time um so all these
50:14
activities can help build our resilience and general ability to manage and adapt with change across um periods of
50:21
upcoming change or things that might have impact on us and the stresses around us so it is really important to
50:27
kind of think about um you know not only are there things that you know we can kind of do um you know internally as
50:33
kind of a commitment to ourself so things like the uh the healthy thinking skills but there's also things that we
50:38
can kind of get from our environment around us and there might be like lots of these things up on the
50:44
SL so um what are some things that you could do to build your personal resilience so um I know I've I've kind
50:52
of raced through a bunch of stuff um but if you think of one me um skill or one kind of one um you know
51:00
healthy thinking skill and um you know one wellbeing strategy uh that you could
51:06
Implement um perhaps this weekend um and and maybe even commit to if your game uh
51:12
for the month of November because I think it is November on Friday so um you know if there's something that you could
51:18
do this weekend and then perhaps if you're interested you know make a personal commitment to doing uh doing
51:24
that um over the course of November perhaps once a week even as a small start um what are some things that you
51:30
could do to build your personal resilience so maybe one of those um you know healthy thinking strategies and
51:35
maybe one of the well-being strategies things that bring you Joy so just take a moment to kind of either capture those
51:41
mentally or have a chat with the person next to you about something that you could do
52:03
so I hope that everyone's got at least one thing um and hopefully two one of each um that you're able to kind of um
52:09
uh put in place I think it's um you know something that we don't often uh make time for when we're kind of juggling
52:16
demands of um the world around us the environments that we're in and um and and meeting the expectations and needs
52:22
of others is often kind of stopping to think about you know one of the one of the what's something that could be
52:27
useful for me um
52:35
yeah right um and just to kind of um wrap up I guess uh some final tips for
52:41
personal resilience during change um I guess one of the kind of important things to note too is that it it is good
52:48
to find something that works for you and do that thing um so not you're not going to get um you know not everything's
52:56
going to work for the same people even some of the you know the healthy thinking techniques are going to be more
53:02
difficult for others to to implement and certainly you know um you know seek seek support to help put those things in
53:08
place um uh you know if you're having you know struggling to kind of you know understand or or um put in place or kind
53:16
of execute some of those healthy thinking skills there sometimes just you know having someone kind of help guide you through that can be quite useful um
53:24
yeah and I guess you know be mindful around that sort of flexible thinking approach there's you know focusing on
53:29
what you can control there there are um you know what are other ways of looking at at the situations that we might be
53:36
you know confronted with or or put in front of us um and what can we control in the situation um and this can that
53:42
can be a really useful strategy sometimes to kind of go well hey I I can't actually do anything right here so
53:48
there's not you know me expending kind of my emotional investment at this point in time is just going to you know drain
53:54
more energy from me rather than kind of let me sort of put this to the side for the moment and then focus on something
53:59
that I can do um yes uh smart goals can be a useful thing to do too particularly
54:05
if we're kind of looking at what are the things we can control so that specific measurable actionable uh action um
54:12
reliable uh and timeline l or realistic sorry and a Time bound so um set smart
54:19
goals break things down and and celebrate kind of achieving those um as they come up um schedule me time so it
54:26
is really important to put those things in place things that bring you that sense of kind of well-being and that
54:32
fill your bucket um and uh and prioritize that as well so um I know
54:39
that for me I have to be really really conscious of putting those things in and they're often the first things that I'll
54:44
kind of disregard if I'm short on time or if I've got too many things on during the week um and uh but I know that I
54:52
feel so much better and able to kind of cope with uh you know things a lot better um you know should should I
54:58
schedule them that sort of time that um kind of fills my bucket um get familiar with your red
55:04
signs sometimes that can be a little hard to do for our own selves um so you know even having a a loved one or a
55:11
trusted sort of colleague in the workplace that might know you know when when you're not looking okay and also
55:17
being able to um ask you know your loved ones and your you know your work colleagues around you too um you know
55:23
hey I I'm just I'm just noticing that you don't seem okay today or you know something looks like it might be going
55:30
on so just you know being able to ask that question too if you if you're noticing thinking that people are kind
55:35
of pushing into red um there's no harm in asking um if people are okay and um that you're that you're there for them
55:41
um in an empathetic way um so yeah be proactive I guess in restoring and
55:47
replenishing your bucket um yeah small but frequent I guess the point for for that there is um often I think uh you
55:54
know when when you're thinking about kind putting strategies in place it's often this you know right I'll go and
55:59
you know I'll buy buy a new I'm not speaking from personal experience here maybe um you know buy some new sport
56:05
shoes and I'll get get my legging you know buy some new leggings and I'll get all this stuff and I'll do these things and I'll set up all the stuff and then
56:11
some sort of thing happens and and and you're not able to kind of do it for this for this long period of time and um
56:18
but you know put small but frequent things in and and you and you you'll be able to um make change over time um but
56:26
even just those little periods of kind of restoration is enough to kind of help keeping our buckets tipped up um yeah
56:33
put practice in there so um again some of those techniques take a little bit of time to get used to and they and with
56:39
any new habit or any new change or thing that you're implementing um it always seems a bit harder to start with or it
56:45
might be good the first day or two and then and then it gets you know things come up and things get challenging so
56:51
you do need to push and and and and practice um and makes perfect so so um
56:57
yeah and the last one there is just remember that there is only one of you so there's only so much that could go in your bucket and there's only so much um
57:04
that you are um able to kind of you know meet and rise to the demands of so it is really important um just to to get
57:10
familiar with with how do you know um that you might be kind of pushing into that red space and when I might need to
57:16
kind of focus on putting some resilient strategies in
57:21
place um yeah and then just the last slide there around additional support um of able through defense so just being
57:28
aware of the um nzdf foru Services um our heads space mindfulness app that
57:33
we've got a contract through uh till April I believe next year so definitely get on there and use it and that's
57:38
certainly one um you know that you need to do small but free point is quite useful um yeah and then just our defense
57:46
Health Website so um that is all I um yeah kind of had I guess now we're kind
57:52
of in the Q&A um slide there so um thank you very much
57:59
for your time um and I hope that you've been able to take at least one thing away from today yeah and I guess I'll be
58:07
here and ready to take any questions if there's um any questions at
58:13
all I can ask you those ones elen we just have we have a few questions and obviously we are running out of time
58:19
zone I'm mindful of that so uh we just have a question here can the type of mindset fixed or grow have an impact on
58:27
how resilient you might be and being able to adapt and grow your personal
58:33
resilience yeah so um so fitst and growth mindsets is is pretty similar to
58:39
the concept of sort of rigid and flexible thinking so certainly when we when we're thinking about fixed mindsets
58:46
it tends to be harder to shift so there'll be ingrained thoughts behaviors
58:51
um you know belief sets that sort of stuff or core beliefs that that that are anchored um and and it does take
58:58
intentional kind of practice to move them into that sort of growth mindset space which is around that adaptability
59:04
and a flexible thinking so um certainly that that's another way and there's a lot of literature out there that growth
59:11
mindset um can help you um build resilience over time um and and enable
59:17
you to kind of have um you know more um you know yeah Le achieve more um uh
59:25
positive kind of outcome potentially of the things that you're kind of tackling when you have a growth mindset you know
59:30
looking for opportunities looking for um you know the positive and optimism in
59:35
the situation yeah don't love that answered your question well that's wonderful
59:42
thank you um and just one more we'll wake at the last one and then we can we can load the rest up um focus for tools
59:48
to develop resilience is on me how can I help partner help a partner experiencing
59:57
work stress or to support them to develop resilience or manage that
1:00:04
stress yeah so there are lots of things that um and I think we've got a session
1:00:11
um I purposefully sort of stayed away from things that you can do as Leaders uh because it'll be like you
1:00:16
know ruin ruin mix months kind of one around sort of uh resilience in the workplace um but you know there there
1:00:24
are a range of things that you can do guess to sort of um you know sense sense how people are doing sense how your
1:00:30
loved ones are doing and and asking um you know making sure there's opportunities to access um you know
1:00:36
things that bring them Joy um you know so since there's things that that we can do to sort of Shield so what are some
1:00:42
things that you know might be contributing uh to to uncertainty or or change or stress that is going on um
1:00:49
what can I do to kind of um you know Shield or protect or kind of um you know
1:00:54
buffer the impact of um and then you know how can I support um and that might not be you necessarily
1:01:01
providing that support that can be in a lot of contexts um but yes see Shield supports a useful way or framework um to
1:01:08
think about kind of you know how we might look out for other people um you know during times of sort of tra change
1:01:14
and stress SS um but yeah I think you know all of those sort of individual
1:01:21
tools are really you know every everyone can kind of engage in those but I think it would would be you know social
1:01:27
support and the connection uh with with loved ones and and Foo and friends and
1:01:34
and kind of you know the the um ability to have social connections really
1:01:39
powerful so I think that that is you know at a at a Forefront just being there um and encouraging kind of you
1:01:45
know access to you know an ability to access social supports really powerful
1:01:50
yeah I'm happy to um you know with I'm not sure who asked that question but if
1:01:56
if Wendy you're able to kind of capture that I'm happy to kind of um provide some other sort of um ideas um just yeah
1:02:03
awesome thank you so much appreciate it we'll leave that one at that because
1:02:10
I'm not noticing the time and we we're just go over by one minute so I will let you wrap that up thanks
1:02:16
Elana awesome well um you know thank you very much everyone for your time today um it's been great I'm hoping that most
1:02:23
of you stayed stayed attuned and in in in today um but yeah I really hope that
1:02:29
um you have a fabulous rest of the day I'm happy to answer any questions um you know over um uh out of session I've got
1:02:36
some time in my calendar on Friday to answer last week's and then this week so um I I'll sit there and kind of get to
1:02:43
them so yeah and please feel free to reach out directly too so um
1:02:54
yeah