We believe resilience needs to be built much like muscles must be trained.
While the Resilience Experiments and Failure Lab help us to experiment with rejection and failure in a safe environment, the Growth module helps us develop mental toughness in a holistic way. Most of the following concepts were researched and taught by the Positive Psychology Center in the University of Pennsylvania (Upenn) The US Army Master Resilience Training (MRT) program also used those resilience skills to train their soldiers.
Our goal is not to sit and lecture youths about resilience. Rather, we will spend our time together doing games and simulation activities to learn and practice our resilience skills, which include:
- Transfer from pessimism to optimism – Understand what’s temporary and controllable. Notice the positive in self and others.
- Self-Awareness – notice one’s emotion and thoughts when facing adversity, and express them. Impulse control.
- Strengths of character – identify strengths in self and others. Use them to overcome challenges and flourish
- Connections – Building trusting relationships. Develop empathy. Offer help and ask for help
- Courage to take risks and fail. Courage to be rejected or disliked. Do that with support from family and friends. Learn the process to manage stress and function even when things feel out of control.
- Successful people rose from failure and setbacks. (Examples: Navy Seal David Goggins, Micahel Jordan, Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, etc)
The skills are introduced through skits, role plays, and short stories that illustrate the core concepts. Once students have a firm understanding of these concepts, they practice with hypothetical examples that demonstrate how the skill is relevant to real-world situations that they might face. Students discuss situations in which they used, or could have used, the concepts they have just learned. They are then encouraged to use the new skills in their daily life as part of their weekly homework.
Contact Upenn Resilience Services for their train-the-trainer program and customized curriculum.