Managing in Difficult Times

1. Managing in Difficult Times Shirley Briggs PEACe Manager London Voluntary Service Council shirley@lvsc.org.uk 020 7832 5880 PEACe

2. Objectives for the workshop • Developing personal resilience – understanding thoughts and behaviours • Stress and the personal effects of high demand workplace

3. “People with highly stressful jobs but little real control over decision making are running a 23% increased risk of a heart attack, according to research from an international study reported in the Lancet”

4. What is stress?

5. What causes stress? Stressful events might included; • Bereavement • Moving house • Having a baby • Serious illness • Redundancy • Poverty • Conflict at work

6. Is stress harmful? • “fight or flight” • Adrenaline • Cortisol

7. Am I under too much stress? • How your body reacts • How you may feel • How you may behave

8. Best way to handle pressure? • Manage your time • Act positively • Accept things you cannot change • How can I learn to relax? • Mindfulness • Physical acivity • Healthy eating

9. What is resilience?

10. Stages of a transition • Initial shock • Minimising/denial • Loss of confidence • Confusion/depression

11. Stages of a Transition (cont’d) • Crisis • Recovery • Renewed confidence

12. Resilience Questionnaire

13. 10 steps to help you be more resilient • Visualise success • Boost your self-esteem • Take control • Become more optimistic • Manage stress

14. 10 steps cont’d • Improve decision-making • Ask for help • Deal with conflict • Learn • Be yourself

15. Five stage approach • Meaningful life (purpose) • Perseverance • Self reliance • Equanimity • Coming home to yourself

16. Purpose and meaning • What do I do that others value? • In what ways am I needed every day, and by whom? • What in my life has most meaning?

17. Perseverance • Do I finish what I begin? • How often am I defeated before I even try? • Do others say I give up too quickly? • Am I able to stay focussed on my goals or am I easily distracted?

18. Self reliance • Am I aware of all the things I do well? • Do others who know me well describe me as a capable person? • Can I usually think through a problem and work out a good solution? • Can I do what needs to be done in an emergency or will I fall apart?

19. Equanimity • Do I see glass as half full or half empty? • Do I look back on my life with so many regrets that I find it difficult to move on? • Do I make catastrophes from even small things that happen in my life? • Would family and close friends describe me as an optimist or a pessimist?

20. Coming home to self • Am I willing to take a course of action that I know to be right but which is unpopular with my peers? • As I look back at my life, what sets me apart from everyone else? • Am I comfortable with whom I have become

21. Conclusion Each of us has extraordinary possibilities and strengths Each has the capacity to get back up and carry on (whether we use it or not) Resilience matters Important to a person’s mental and physical health Resilience protects and reverses depression, anxiety, fear and helplessness

22. Final Note • “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. • I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal.

23. Final Note cont’d • In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. • If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” Goethe

24. Where to find more information • PEACe www.lvsc.org.uk/workinghours • Acas www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1283 • Health and Safety Executive www.hse.gov.uk/stress • The Shaw Trust • www.tacklementalhealth.org.uk

25. Any questions? PEACe