Resilience Enablers: Being
Now here’s one for all the macho resilient folk out there. ‘Being’ is one of the three fundamental skills to resilience. To be able to be present in the moment is critical for resilience. And that means it’s critical for leadership because resilience is the ability to successfully adapt to change. Isn’t that the essence of leadership in today’s world?
If you cannot learn to ‘be’ in the moment, your learning will be shot to pieces. If you cannot sense what is going on inside you, outside you, in others, your ability to respond to the actual situation will be weak. If you override your senses and ignore what’s going on, you are building trouble. If you are overriding the signals of stress, of exhaustion or ill –health, you are on your way to a breakdown.
Being. Quite simple to say, not so simple to embrace on a daily basis. It’s counter to our do!-do!-do! Culture. It feels weird. It can sometimes feel pointless. The point of being practices such as Mindfulness is the process itself. It delivers a multitude of benefits. For resilience, the biggest benefits are re-energising, getting perspective, self-acceptance, increased focus and massively enhanced learning.
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by allowing one’s awareness to rest on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. The core tenets of mindfulness are compassion, curiosity and acceptance. The Resilience Engine embraces the revolution happening through mindfulness; it’s fantastic! So our question to you is.
What ‘being’ practices will you put in place to help your resilience?
Jenny Campbell,
Senior Executive Coach and Resilience Researcher
The Resilience Engine has been researching resilience since 2007. To learn more about our research please click here. Get in touch if you are interested in what resilience can do for you or your organisation. Contact us.