What am I learning about my way of coping?

Resilience can mean different things to different people; in a nutshell, it refers to a person’s ability to cope with challenging or difficult situations. Being resilient doesn’t mean that you’ve not experienced difficulties, not felt down, anxious or distressed when things are tough, or not asked for help in times of need.

In a lot of ways, resilience refers to the ability to notice when we’re not OK, allow ourselves to feel our emotions rather than suppressing them, and then seek the right support to help us deal with the situation and our reactions. Resilience is about getting through the situation and reflecting on how we coped and what helped us. It’s also about learning new coping strategies for the future, as well as being able to tell the difference between things we can and can’t control, and accepting the latter.

Resilience also goes hand in hand with kindness and understanding towards ourselves. When we treat ourselves in the same kind way that we’d treat our most beloved friend or relative, we can find strength to cope with most things. Hopefully the strategies in this course have helped you to strengthen your resilience and ability to cope.

Here’s a modifiable worksheet to help you think about things that are helpful to you, your way of coping and your resilience. Take a moment to look at the questions and make notes; you may be surprised to find that you’re coping better than you thought you were, or that you’re progressing in the right direction. You might want to share this handout with other members of your family or household and talk to them about how you have all been coping recently.