Understanding the role resiliency plays in Bullying Prevention is important, but it is only half the battle. Ultimately, your role is to nurture and grow resiliency in your program participants. If one didn’t naturally inherit resilience or grow up in an environment where it was taught from an early age, there is still a way for them to become a resilient person. Become more resilient requires discipline and practice. In this post, we discuss several things you can do to improve resiliency in your program.
Develop the Right Attitude
One of the most important things you can do to improve resiliency is to foster the right attitude in your program. Resilient people view life’s difficulties as challenges and respond accordingly with action, rather than with fear, self-pity, blame, or a victim mentality. Resilient people never get caught up in the procrastination – blame – victim thinking cycle. They have the ability to rise above failure and perform at their best even when the odds are stacked against them.
Changing these attitudes should be one of the things your program focuses on. Work with your participants to develop in them positive self-talk that will silence their negative inner critic. Encouraging them to face their challenges and find solutions should also be a part of this process. When they start to exhibit positive thinking and a positive attitude on a consistent basis they are well on their way to becoming more resilient.
Improve Awareness of Emotions
Another important part of resiliency is emotional awareness. It is crucial for individuals to understand what they are feeling and why they are experiencing that feeling. Sometimes people feel overwhelmed with their emotions and avoid trying to understand them. This only frightens and immobilizes them. Instead, work with your participants on getting in touch with their emotions. Have them talk about what they are feeling and why they feel the way they do. Having them keep a journal about the emotions they experience on a day-to-day basis can also be useful.
Develop an Internal Locus of Control
The researcher, Julian Rotter, concluded that people’s feelings or beliefs about factors that influence their behavior are as important as the actual factors themselves. Essentially the way people think about what happens to them is just as important as what actually happens. Rotter used the term, “Locus of Control” to refer to people’s beliefs about their own self-control. People with internal Locus of Control believe that only they are responsible for what happens to them. People with an external Locus of Control believe that they have no control over what happens to them. Externals view themselves as victims of fate or outside forces.
People with an internal locus of control tend to be more resilient that those with an external locus of control. What’s more is that one’s locus of control can be changed. Work with your students on developing an internal locus of control. Make sure they understand that they are in control of how they think and feel, even if they aren’t always in control of their situation. Internals are able to accept responsibility for what happens to them and believe that they have some control over situations and choices that they make. This will have a positive influence on the bullying prevention process.
Cultivate Optimism
Another way to improve resiliency is to cultivate a culture of optimism. This form of positive thinking allows people to find the silver lining in any difficult situation. Being an optimist is more than just looking on the bright side of things. It is a way of viewing the world that maximizes one’s strengths and accomplishments while minimizing weaknesses and setbacks. Developing optimism in your population will go a long way to making your bullying prevention process a success. It will foster resiliency in both the individuals involved and in the overall program itself.
Seek Out Supportive People
While resilient people tend to be strong individuals, they understand the value of social support and are able to surround themselves with supportive friends and family. Improving resiliency is easier if there are people there to support the individuals seeking to increase their resilience. This step relies upon bringing parents, mentors, and peers into the process to help and support your program participants. When they feel as if they are being supported in their endeavors they will be much more successful.
If you would like to learn more about how our Bullying Prevention program can assess and develop resiliency in your population click the free trial link below.
