These have been tough times. We have all been facing difficult and particular challenges as we’ve navigated the COVID pandemic. As a befriender, you may be hearing about anxiety about getting back into the world. There may be the temptation to isolate and this can have an impact on a person’s wellbeing. Maybe you share those concerns.

We wanted to share some ideas and resources around resilience. This can sometimes be used in a throw-away way, but at it’s heart being resilient gives us the ability to adapt to all of life’s circumstances. It doesn’t assume bad things won’t happen, but instead helps us develop the skills to adapt as life affects us.

ME: THE RESILIENCE TREE

Rather than thinking of resilience as being tough, or of emotional hardness, we think resilience has more to do with our roots. Like a magnificent tree, our ability to stand is often based on what’s underground, rather than how tough we are. These exercises help us to consider those ideas a little further.

Use this when you want to consider how and where you draw strength.

GIVE AWAY: stress ball

Sometimes worries and anxieties can hit us in unexpected ways and in unexpected places. Using something like a stress ball is a very helpful give-away to an older neighbour who struggles with worry.

Use this when unexpected worries come up.

DO TOGETHER: RESILIENCE QUESTIONS

This article - called ‘How to Build Resilience Now’ gives us a number of questions to discuss with your Older Neighbour. As a Befriender you could introduce this as an exercise to do together, or use these questions over the course of many visits. Check out the link below.

Use this when the topic of resilience or keeping going comes up in conversations.

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?

Check out this article from our website.