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Resilience

No matter what challenges we face in life, we have the ability to bounce back. If you are living and breathing today, you are resilient! We all are born with internal personal strengths that we rely on when difficulties arise. These strengths help to pull us out of our challenges. When we have a clear understanding of these strengths, we can utilize them more efficiently and bounce back faster. Programs, policies, and interactions that are rooted in the philosophy of resiliency help people live a more healthy, fulfilling life through their own design.

Healthy Acadia is committed to incorporating the philosophy of resiliency in our initiatives and interactions. We offer interactive presentations for schools and school groups that teach young people skills designed to increase their abilities to understand their thinking patterns, recognize when those patterns are counterproductive, and gain the skills necessary to change patterns that are not serving them well. Other skills teach how to prevent and /or cope with anxiety, and develop an optimistic thinking style. 

An optimistic thinking style is shown to increase academic and athletic performance, feelings of self-efficacy, protect against depression, and reduce the incidence of underage substance use. Healthy Acadia offers skill-building workshops to help students develop increased resilience using these tools:

  • GOAL SETTING: Identify, plan for, and commit to the pursuit of a goal that results in more optimal performance, sustained motivation, and increased effort.

  • HUNT THE GOOD STUFF: Hunt the Good Stuff to counter the negativity bias, to create positive emotion, gratitude, and to notice and analyze what is good.

  • ACTIVATING EVENT, THOUGHTS, AND CONSEQUENCES: Identify your Thoughts about an Activating Event and the Consequences of those Thoughts.

  • ENERGY MANAGEMENT: Take control of your physical state, bring your focus to the present moment, and perform optimally.

  • AVOID THINKING TRAPS: Identify and correct counterproductive patterns in thinking through the use of Mental Cues and Critical Questions.

  • DETECT ICEBERGS: Identify and evaluate core beliefs and core values that fuel out-of-proportion emotions and reactions.

  • PROBLEM SOLVING: Accurately identify what caused the problem and identify solution strategies.

Learn more

For more information, or to schedule sessions for your students, contact: Tara Young (Hancock County): Tara@HealthyAcadia.org or 207-667-7171

Restorative Practices for Student Communities

Restorative practices are rooted in First Nation and indigenous community traditions and philosophies. Much like any process that engages those individuals directly impacted in a decision-making role, student-led processes foster individual and group ownership in ways that rarely materialize in more adult-directed forums. The goal of the training curriculum is to 1) guide student participants through the work of re-establishing relationships with one another and to their (school) community; and 2) support those students in their work as peer ambassadors to promote inclusive changes or enhancements within their (school) community. 

To explore these curriculums and learn how to incorporate this work in your school, classroom, or organization, please contact Corrie.Hunkler@HealthyAcadia.org.