Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Resilience

 

Emotional resilience

 

Physical resilience

It is important to remember that someone who is physically resilient can manage their emotional state better than someone who is not – your physical state is the foundation of your emotional state.

When we’re tired, unwell or even hungry, we find it harder to manage our emotions. Some people get manic, irritable or panicky, while others move into a chronic low arousal state almost like temporary depression.

Your physical resilience is based on the kinds of healthy habits that we all know about but find hard to put into practice! All of the following aspects are important:

• Good sleep habits
• Healthy eating
• Exercise (especially outdoors)
• Avoidance of addictive habits like smoking or excessive drinking
• Relaxation and calming activities

 

Take action

If you would like to take an action to improve your own physical resilience, there is some good guidance on the NHS website under their ‘Live Well’, and ‘Better Health’ banners and many local authority websites have guides to healthy living resources in your own area.

 

Making a commitment to yourself

Taking care of our bodies is often something that drops to the bottom of the weekly ‘to do’ list for busy people. But, as you well know, your wellbeing won’t improve unless you do something about it!

You may want to reflect for a moment on an aspect of your physical wellbeing that you would like to improve. Think of an habit you would like to develop (e.g. taking a daily 20 minute walk, trying out new healthy recipes).

Now make a commitment to yourself to practice that habit just three times over the next two weeks.

After two weeks, take 15 minutes to reflect back on the habit you have practised.

• Did it help you feel better and more resilient?
• In what ways?
• Does the habit need to be ‘tweaked’ to make it easier or more effective?

Then repeat!

 

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