The Great Courses
Publisher
The Great Courses
Description
Jump-start your creativity with a selection of fun exercises, including “What-If Moments” and “The First-Line Game.” Mr. Bell cites best-selling authors such as Alice Sebold and Mickey Spillane to demonstrate the importance of creating unique elements: a twist, a character, a setting, a relationship. Find out how to create the ever-important elevator pitch.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Research shows we thrive when we embrace problems, confident that we're resilient enough to work through them. In "Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity," you’ll learn how to create greater resilience. Whether you’re a trauma survivor or someone who is simply reaching for a more fulfilling and joyful life, your life will be enriched when you proactively increase your resilience.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Will we be crippled by adversity or see an opportunity for growth? The answer lies in our ability to be resilient. Meet the eight themes of resilience this course will bring to life: core values and purpose, finding meaning in adversity, equanimity, self-care, healthy coping skills, a positive sense of self, support and connection with others, and a proactive worldview.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Whether or not you think of yourself as a hero, chances are the adversity in your life has caused you to walk the hero’s journey. Discover what that journey entails (illustrated by your instructor’s own life) from initial call to adventure through the ordeal and rebirth, until stepping into your new truth in a world that no longer seems as ordinary as you’d once thought.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Learn how humans have nurtured a spirit of resilience for thousands of years through instinct, “deep listening,” the Golden Rule, rites of passage, and faith (whether spiritual or not). Studying these practices, scientists are now confirming and promoting some of these techniques as ways to process adverse experiences and return to harmony.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Humans have always experienced periods of acute stress, and we have the nervous system to prove it. Explore how the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for the fight-flight-freeze response, and how the parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body when the cause of stress has passed. But if the cause of stress becomes chronic, serious long-term health consequences can result.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
We often think of physical resilience as our body’s physical strength and fitness (the stronger we are, the quicker we’ll bounce back). But that’s only part of it. Learn about the additional skills needed to recover well from physical stress, illness, or injury. You’ll see that building physical resilience is not just what you do, it’s also how and why you do it.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
We’ve been socialized to believe positive emotions are good and negative emotions are bad, but that is far from the truth. Our emotions are simply our individual responses to the situations we experience; we can accept, pay attention to, and learn from all of them. Explore some coping mechanisms for regulating your emotions, which some scientists see as the single most vital aspect of resilience.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Our mind has the power to make or break our ability to recover from adversity. While we can’t completely control what we think, we can control how we understand and react to those thoughts. Explore the important relationships between your thoughts, belief systems, and core values, and learn why psychological flexibility is the foundation of mental resilience.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Does self-care sound uncomfortably self-focused and egotistical to you? If so, remember that caring for yourself is a crucial component of your own resilience, as well as giving you the energy and ability to help others. Learn how the Wheel of Life exercise can help you determine where you’re lacking in self-care, and how to create and manage your own Self-Care Journal to improve your resilience.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
We often think of sleep as simply what’s left over at the end of the day. But to the contrary: Healthy sleep patterns can transform your life with improved physical and mental health, better memory, and even increased longevity. Learn how to prepare your bedroom, your body, and your mind for high-quality sleep, and the many ways in which your phone can both hinder and help you achieve that goal.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Our lives can feel like maelstroms of sensory input, thoughts, and emotions. But there is a way to find the stillness that permanently exists beneath it all: meditation. Validated by thousands of scientific studies, meditation has been proven to enhance almost every aspect of life. Experience the power of mindfulness meditation and learn how it can help you find peace in the present moment.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
All trauma, whether caused by a single event or prolonged exposure to a traumatic pattern, affects our physical body and our mind. Trauma causes specific changes in the brain and even in the genetics of reproduction. Learn why, without help, the mind and body can get stuck in the loop of the sympathetic nervous system’s trauma response. And how, with appropriate help, the mind and body can heal.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Those who can process their trauma can move forward to become stronger, wiser, and more resilient. Using Harriet Beecher Stowe as a fascinating example, you’ll learn how post-traumatic growth can lead to improved personal strength, the opening of new possibilities, spiritual change, and greater appreciation for life. We can become more resilient because of, not despite, adversity.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
You'll thoroughly enjoy this enlightening conversation between your instructor and Suzi Landolphi, a well-known leader in the post-traumatic growth movement, who currently works with combat veterans as a PATHH Guide (Progressive and Alternative Training for Healing Heroes). Just as trauma can be transmitted to successive generations, so can post-traumatic growth.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Human beings are wired for connection to others; our initial cognitive development depends on physical touch, and our “mirror neurons” teach us how to be human based on our interactions with others. Learn how to develop quality connections with others, connections that will help you thrive and increase resilience. Your instructor shares the inspiring stories of two individuals who did just that.
17) Finding Safety
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
When we feel unsafe, our brains become stuck in the response of the sympathetic nervous system and we have very little access to higher cognitive functioning. Learn how to increase your number of protective factors, increasing your feeling of safety and your resilience. The goal isn’t to eliminate the risk of danger, but rather to have as much control over it as possible.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Authentic, lasting joy is an internal experience, not dependent upon any circumstances outside of ourselves. Learn how to find authentic joy by opening up to all of life (allowing yourself to feel the full range of your feelings, including those emotions you’ve been taught to bury) and taking responsibility for your own choices in your unique journey.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Instructor Birkholm takes you through a gentle yoga practice to help build awareness of your body, feelings, and beliefs. No yoga experience is necessary. You’ll be guided by this step-by-step instruction, which is modeled both standing and sitting. At the end of the practice, you’ll experience a deep relaxation pose, resting in the stillness that is always available to you.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Learning to work with breathing is particularly powerful, as breath is the only function of the autonomic nervous system we can control. You’ll practice the three-part yogic breath, relaxation breath, energizing breath, and alternate-nostril breathing, among others. You’ll develop a better understanding of the yogic saying: “The mind affects the breath, and the breath affects the mind.”