Continuing with the book: Growing up Resilient...
Learning Strengths
Okay. Indicators are, that intelligence is a positive factor in resilience. I have often thought the opposite. I envied people who seemed less intelligent than I, because I thought they didn't see or understand all the things I saw and absorbed=which was equivalent to my unhappiness and despair.
However, as we now know, there are many kinds of intelligence. And as in Darwin's quote from yesterday, it doesn't matter how intelligent we are if we haven't learned how to adapt.
What are the resilience intelligence factors? Creativity--seeing more than one solution to a problem. Creativity can also help in seeing the problem in a different way--reframing, changing perspective.
Problem-solving itself. Being able to think things through to outcomes. Weighing the pros and cons. Setting goals. Setting realistic limitations and expectations. Being able to cope with time-lines and measurable results. Using failures or less than optimum results as lessons and feedback to redefine the process.
Challenge=Mastery. This is so necessary at every time in our lives. Whether we are children or adults, we need to be adequately challenged and stimulated to grow and overcome. To feel alive. To be well. And, as we take on challenges appropriate to our ability, we can overcome and achieve mastery. With mastery, comes happiness and experience, on which we can build towards taking on greater challenges.
I think what has happened for me in my past, is that I took on challenges that were greater than what I could realistically achieve--especially with my mental illness, which was undiagnosed and untreated at the time. So, of course I crashed. I wasn't able to do it, and I beat myself up. Contributing to the frequent downward spirals from which I suffered.
What I can do now is to first, gear down. Slow down and find the level of activity in my life where I can achieve balance. Then, taking baby steps, add some challenges where I may not excel, and where it may not matter. I need some practice with not being perfect.
And/or add some challenges in areas where I have failed in the past, and take baby steps. E.g. Instead of registering in a program, take just one course and see how that goes.
I may never be able to carry the full load of life which other people seem able to carry. But to be healthy and continue to grow, I need to continue to challenge myself to the levels I can handle or achieve.
Humour. Some forms of humour are amazingly intelligent requiring great agility of the mind. If we can see everyday things in an unusual way and learn to laugh at our own idiosyncrasies, we can often overcome many obstacles. Besides, laughing makes us feel better.
And finally, social intelligence and emotional intelligence figure in here somewhere. More on this next posting.
Learning Strengths
Okay. Indicators are, that intelligence is a positive factor in resilience. I have often thought the opposite. I envied people who seemed less intelligent than I, because I thought they didn't see or understand all the things I saw and absorbed=which was equivalent to my unhappiness and despair.
However, as we now know, there are many kinds of intelligence. And as in Darwin's quote from yesterday, it doesn't matter how intelligent we are if we haven't learned how to adapt.
What are the resilience intelligence factors? Creativity--seeing more than one solution to a problem. Creativity can also help in seeing the problem in a different way--reframing, changing perspective.
Problem-solving itself. Being able to think things through to outcomes. Weighing the pros and cons. Setting goals. Setting realistic limitations and expectations. Being able to cope with time-lines and measurable results. Using failures or less than optimum results as lessons and feedback to redefine the process.
Challenge=Mastery. This is so necessary at every time in our lives. Whether we are children or adults, we need to be adequately challenged and stimulated to grow and overcome. To feel alive. To be well. And, as we take on challenges appropriate to our ability, we can overcome and achieve mastery. With mastery, comes happiness and experience, on which we can build towards taking on greater challenges.
I think what has happened for me in my past, is that I took on challenges that were greater than what I could realistically achieve--especially with my mental illness, which was undiagnosed and untreated at the time. So, of course I crashed. I wasn't able to do it, and I beat myself up. Contributing to the frequent downward spirals from which I suffered.
What I can do now is to first, gear down. Slow down and find the level of activity in my life where I can achieve balance. Then, taking baby steps, add some challenges where I may not excel, and where it may not matter. I need some practice with not being perfect.
And/or add some challenges in areas where I have failed in the past, and take baby steps. E.g. Instead of registering in a program, take just one course and see how that goes.
I may never be able to carry the full load of life which other people seem able to carry. But to be healthy and continue to grow, I need to continue to challenge myself to the levels I can handle or achieve.
Humour. Some forms of humour are amazingly intelligent requiring great agility of the mind. If we can see everyday things in an unusual way and learn to laugh at our own idiosyncrasies, we can often overcome many obstacles. Besides, laughing makes us feel better.
And finally, social intelligence and emotional intelligence figure in here somewhere. More on this next posting.
No comments:
Post a Comment