Building resilience starts with moving our attention to what we want to grow. Energy follows attention. Moving our attention away from the negative circumstances in our work or personal life and focusing on the positive aspects means that this is where our energies shift to.

I can hear you questioning, isn’t that just another warm and fuzzy thing that circulates trying to distract us from the real work at hand. Well, actually no, there is brain research to show that when we focus our energy on gratitude more of our brain lights up.

In a Forbes article Dede Henley wrote, “If, however, you can switch your attention to what’s good, what’s beautiful, what’s working, you can direct your energy to higher ground. Your brain will be more lit up and active — literally, as Dr. Noelle Nelson, author of “The Power of Appreciation,” shows in these brain scans of a person when they’re engaged in negativity vs. when they’re engaged in appreciation.”

In his article What Can the Brain Reveal about Gratitude? Glen Fox explains:

“The regions associated with gratitude are part of the neural networks that light up when we socialize and experience pleasure. These regions are also heavily connected to the parts of the brain that control basic emotion regulation, such as heart rate and arousal levels, and are associated with stress relief and thus pain reduction.”

Henley wrote that it doesn’t have to be that complicated to get there. “Harvard researcher and author Shawn Achor suggests writing down three things you’re grateful every day for 21 days in a row. That simple act, he says, “significantly increases your level of optimism, and it holds for the next six months. The research is amazing. 

Other studies show gratitude increases willpower, helps keep you calm, and can even boost employee morale.”

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a teacher. She said every night she sat with her daughter and they went through a little ritual together. At the end of each day they would say what they are grateful for, several years past and one night the daughter said, “Mum, I don’t need to do this any more because I am grateful for everything”.

Having an attitude of gratitude, now that does sound cliche, but it is true. My suggestion to teaching teams is to start every meeting with gratitude because it shifts your brain into focusing on what you want to grow and then that is where your energy will go.

So the challenge - 21 days of writing down the things you are grateful for, shifting your mindset into that creative space that allows your energy to flow. You will build resilience to move through times of change. Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.”

Recently there have been a lot of negative conversations about the state of ECE and of course there is the ongoing uncertainty around Covid-19 but we, the teachers, often did not create these issues, they are not us. The online conversations and the negative press of the state of ECE do not define who we are. Focus on being the best education and care setting, teacher, person you can be that is your responsibility. Imagine all that you can be by focusing on what you want to grow, turning negative situations around by acknowledging the wonderful things that are happening across Aotearoa inside so many early childhood settings. Start with the things you are grateful for then shift your energy into the things that truly matter.

Arohanui

Lynn

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dedehenley/2020/08/08/how-to-change-your-mindset-to-cultivate-resilience/#7a196b1257ea