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• Esther Orioli 12:29 pm on August 14, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

  How do YOU measure resiliency? 

  At a time in the world where everyone is having to COPE in a capital letter kind of way, resiliency has become the new buzz word for health and wellness and the prescription for getting through during tough times both at work and at home.

  As the creator of Resiliency Map®, a resiliency assessment used by major corporations worldwide to help their people, I am often asked how knowing your resiliency “score” really makes a difference in the day-to-day ways we handle pressures and persevere to live another day. Some leaders I have worked with think that when bad things happen we should just pick ourselves up and push on. They want their people to stop being cry babies and get the job done! If it were only that simple.

  Forcing ourselves to hang in there, again and again, without a break or some tool to manage during distressful times, leads to increasing the rate of wear and tear on the body, mind, emotions and spirit. After awhile, i.e. months or years, of keeping a stiff upper lip it is no wonder we’re a little bundle of ailments – back pain, headaches, anxiety, frustration, getting less done and using more effort to do it. That being said, how can accurately measuring your resiliency really help you have a better, easier life?

  Having a scientifically sound assessment gives you information. It shows your unique strengths and personal vulnerabilities. It tells you if you’re eating too much junk, getting stuck in old habits, or acting out through anger or passive aggression when things go wrong. It tells you if you’re not making your needs a priority so you can bolster yourself to be present and successful in the ways you want to be in your life. I have often said that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” This has never been more true.

  Based on years of research and data studies, my definition of resiliency is this: The ability to come back after disappointments, failures or setbacks, to be adaptable and flexible, to renew your sense of vitality and reengineer yourself based on life experiences. These three prongs of resiliency give you everything you need to thrive, not just cope, in a world filled with chaos and uncertainty.

  How do YOU define resiliency?

  
   

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• Esther Orioli 12:19 pm on January 11, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Behavior Change ( 2 ), change ( 2 ), resilience, resiliency, self improvement ( 3 ), stress ( 2 ), stress management ( 2 )   

  Skinny people don’t have stress 

  What a ridiculous statement to make! But recently I was speaking at a conference on health and wellness and it sure sounded like that’s what they meant. The answer to everything was lose weight, stop smoking, eat right and exercise.

  What advice do they have for people who are struggling with chronic illness, too much distress at work, or dealing with real grief and depression? You guessed it – lose weight, stop smoking, eat right and exercise.

  So what do skinny, non-smoking, fit, healthy people do about stress? It all points out just how stress illiterate we really are.

  Stress is a very complex subject. It’s not just a health issue or a diet issue or a weight issue. It’s also a medical issue and a legal issue and a productivity issue and family issue and quality of life issue. Stress owns its own domain and as such requires a whole new way of understanding and dealing with its complexities. So when it comes to stress we’ve got to move beyond deep breathing and broccoli into a new definition of stress management.

  As a stress expert I explain that this most complicated of issues can be addressed in the simplest of ways: the best way to manage stress is to shorten the amount of time that passes between when you notice your distress and when you respond to it. When the body goes into a “Red Alert” – the natural stress response to real or imagined danger – everything in your body changes. From the hormones that are released into your bloodstream to the sharpness of your eyesight and the acuity of your hearing, your body is trying to give you a fighting chance to survive the attack.

  That attack can be your boss piling on another project with a tight deadline, or you struggling with the issues of aging parents, maybe a co-worker is not pulling her weight or you have to have a difficult conversation with a friend. Whatever it is, your body responds internally to the threat even if your mouth or your actions never do.

  So, you might need to lose weight, stop smoking, eat right and exercise but if I were you, I’d focus on listening to my body and responding to those “red alerts” as soon as you can. Who knows, giving your body what it needs just might make you skinny.