Characteristics Of Resilience – Sarah Sherwood
SUMMARY
People who bring things in the world can feel burned out quickly, and so having the resilience to keep going and maintain productivity is crucial.
In this episode with Sarah Sherwood, a certified Life Coach, Spiritual Director, and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, she’s going to break down what resiliency is and how we can achieve it. Remember, resiliency is essential to recover quickly from tough times.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Resiliency is about integrating difficult, disappointing, and stressful parts of our story so we can get stronger within it.
Resiliency can fuel a more engaged and connected life.
Understand who we are as a whole process which includes the five dimensions of our human energy.
In the recovery process, understand how the difficulty began to drain our energies and work to seal those energies.
Practice slowing down to regulate the nervous system which controls how you respond to stress.
The way we can increase productivity and be more present in our lives is about managing our energy.
We can create more sustainable and renewable energy when we understand how to handle it.
TRANSCRIPTION: CHARACTERISTICS OF RESILIENCE – SARAH SHERWOOD
Luis Congdon
Hey, there Thriving Launchers, would you like to get some new perspectives on being mindful and how to recover from trauma or have more resistance in your life by having the characteristics of resilience?
We’re going to talk all that with Sarah Sherwood on today’s show.
Hey Thriving Launchers, today’s guest is Sarah Sherwood. She’s a certified life coach, spiritual director, and somatic experiencing practitioner.
Welcome Thriving Launchers, are you guys ready to launch? It’s because we are, and we have Sarah here.
Sarah, are you ready to launch?
Sarah Sherwood
I am ready to launch.
Luis Congdon
All right, let’s roll.
Sarah, I know you coach a lot around finding presence, resiliency, and even recovery.
I’m curious. What is that word resiliency and what are the characteristics of resilience? What does that word mean to you, and why is it an important word for us to know?
Sarah Sherwood
Thank you for the question. That’s an important question.
Characteristics Of Resilience For Survival
Sarah Sherwood
To me, just at the heart of who I am and how I help people is I have my own story of resiliency as most of us do, overcoming a debilitating illness that went undiagnosed for more than two decades.
What I found was in my process that there was this feeling around resiliency that I survived. I have the scars to prove it, but now, I’m kind of hard and bracing against life and pushing my way forward. I got curious about a different way.
What The Characteristics Of Resilience Are
Sarah Sherwood
I think that can fuel a more engaged and just more connected life.
Kamala Chambers
Yeah.
Sometimes we have to go through the fire so to speak to get out to the other side, and sometimes, beautiful things going to happen while we go through that process.
What do you find are some ways that we go through the recovery process and find those gems?
Characteristics Of Resilience – Understand Who You Are As A Whole Person
Sarah Sherwood
Foundationally, I think it’s about understanding who we are as whole people, that there are, from my perspective just five dimensions of our human energy; physical for sure, but also emotional, mental, social relational, and spiritual.
And so, in the recovery process, understanding how the difficulty, whether it was a single event or something over an extended period, how that began to drain our energies and work to seal those leaks, and then be intentional about making sure we’re renewing all aspects of ourselves so we can be sustained.
Kamala Chambers
Do you have anything even more specific like a tip or a tool we can use to move through?
Sarah Sherwood
Yeah.
I work primarily from just the understanding of our stress response in our nervous system, how our body responds to fear and stress.
Characteristics Of Resilience – Slowing Down
Sarah Sherwood
Just at the most foundational and practical as you’re asking tips and tools, is learning how to slow down so we can regulate our nervous system and not stay in a state all the time of high alert and high stress.
Some of the essential pieces of that are to shift our attention and to regulate our breath to begin to also then, learn how to label what it is that we’re experiencing, and be more present to it.
Characteristics Of Resilience – Regulating Stress
Sarah Sherwood
It’s just some of the absolute basics of mindfulness, and also controlling our stress. It’s because we can easily get stuck in a pattern of staying in that stress cycle. We know we’re stressed out, and we should be choosing a different response, but it’s hard to make that change or pivot towards something new and different if we aren’t able to practice slowing down.
Kamala Chambers
Yeah, slowing down and mindfulness are such valuable tools for all aspects of life even beyond what we’re talking about here. I’m glad you brought those tools up.
Before we go, I’d love to hear any last message you want to share the Thriving Launchers about how we can have more resiliency in our own lives.
Sarah Sherwood
If we can be intentional about understanding that the way we can increase productivity as well as being more present in our lives, it’s about managing our energy.
Not our time or downloading a new app or drinking more coffee to get that jolt just to keep going.
When we can understand that, then we can create more sustainable, renewable energy to keep being courageous, crossing those edges, launching our creative ideas, business ventures, and those kinds of things out into the world without burning out.
I know that many of us, who are bringing things to the world, can touch and feel that edge of burn out easily.
That’s what I would leave you with.
Kamala Chambers
Thriving Launchers, there you have it. We’ve been here with Sarah Sherwood talking about characteristics of resilience.
Characteristics Of Resilience Takeaway
Kamala Chambers
The biggest takeaway I’m taking away from this episode is the reminder to slow down. It’s something I talk a lot about, and it’s something that I feel I need the reminder.
I think in the society we live in today, we all need that reminder to slow down a little bit, to pay attention a bit more, to experience life a little deeper. With that, keep thriving everyone.
