Family Resilience

Family Resilience Planning
When talking about Family Resilience I’m often asked whether hearing me discuss the issues around sustainability, resilience, and preparedness has made any of the children worried or anxious.
Actually, we’ve found exactly the opposite to be true !
From an early age my three sons, and now our grandchildren, soon felt confident in their ability to handle a just about any crisis, and each one knows they make valuable contributions to our safety and family welfare.
I believe it is important to make your preparedness a whole family unit project and to practice it like a game with scenarios and also try to include everyone in your family unit in some way, even the very young or elderly, as everyone can contribute.
For example, by letting your children hear you calmly discuss how to evacuate your home in a fire and make the opportunity to practice those skills routinely, then the smoke detector going off in the middle of the night will simply put them on autopilot. They will know the steps to take and ways to reach safety.
But if, in an effort to protect your children from the fear of fire, you never bring the subject up, the smoke detector going off in the middle of the night may well lead to panic, and panic is always dangerous!
In preparing to care for your children in an emergency, panic will be the biggest threat.
Because if you feel desperate and out of control, you can be assured that your children will quickly pick up on that and start to feel the same way.
But if you are prepared and confident, your children will draw their strength from you and will often show remarkable resourcefulness and resilience.  For this reason, if for no other, family preparedness is crucial.
Whether you’re worried about a sudden work layoff, home invasions, car accidents, the power going out for a week, natural disasters, or long term economic and societal decline, it’s critical that you start getting ready for family resilience now.
If you wait until you need it, it’s already too late !

What is Resilience Planning?
Resilience planning is a process that family units can undertake to identify any potential hazards and key threats, and then establish adaptation, mitigation, and recovery plans. The goal is to reduce likely impacts and ensure a quick recovery.
So what is the unit in the context we use for family resilience?
Your own family probably consists of more people than the ones you share an address with, and maybe, like many these days, you have a blended family or an extended family and possibly like-minded close friends that you trust and would like to be with in case of a crisis.
It is this group of people -defined by you – that I call your family resilience unit.
Since your total unit does not necessarily live under the same roof, in the event of a crisis or disaster, you will need: A plan!
It’s important that you have a predetermined meeting point that everyone knows. The most natural place to meet is at someone’s house, preferably the biggest one or a home you can easily get to.
Building resilience within family units will mean learning skills that help you bounce back when things get tough. It's all about being mentally strong, adaptable, and learning from tough situations.
The 5 characteristics of resilient people.

• Problem-solving skills.
• Strong social connections.
• Survivor mentality.
• Emotional regulation.
• Self-compassion.

Negativity is the greatest killer of resilience so practice gratitude in your daily life as much as possible. Because we all know it's far too easy to focus on negative things in life — our brains are hardwired to do so and keep us out of danger!
Symptoms and common characteristics of low resilience:

• Irritability/Anger. ...
• Persistent Illness. ...
• Trouble Sleeping. ...
• Becoming Isolated or Over Clingy. ...
• Moodiness. ...
• Overreaction to Normal Stress. ...
• Easily Depressed/Crying. ...
• Poor Memory.

So how can you tell if someone is resilient?
Key signs you might be more resilient than you think:

• You consistently come up with multiple strategies. ...
• You ask questions when trouble hits. ...
• You reach out. ...
• You see more than one side and are balanced. ...
• You're OK with not knowing everything. ...
• You look for purpose.

To promote family resilience, it is important to build a strong family network. Connecting with others in your wider family to create a unit provides social support and strengthens resilience. Children who may feel helpless can feel empowered by helping others. Engage your child in age-appropriate activities and volunteer work or ask for assistance yourself with tasks that they can master.

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Recently we have started to work with Amy James of Enchanted Forage expanding our capabilities on Family Resilience.

See : www.enchantedforage.co.uk 

Enchanted Forage, where nature's bounty becomes a playground for learning and exploration!