If you cut your finger, do you just let it bleed? If it gets infected, do you let it fester? If it progresses to blood poisoning, do you just “toughen up” and hope it gets better?
The answer to all of these is no. If you cut it, you put a bandaid on it to protect it. If it gets infected you put cream on it, and if it continues to get worse you seek medical treatment.
Why then when we get an emotional wound do we not provide first aid to ourselves? Why do we not practice emotional resilience? Why do we see weakness in emotional stresses?
This week in our business 2 colleagues have lost dear friends, one an old mate of many years and one a furry friend of 16 years. Any pet lover knows how close we become to our fur families and anyone with old mates knows the agony of just the thought of losing a friend. For both of these people I tried to provide a salve of care and love to help them through their tough time, but there’s no St John’s course to get you certified in emotional First Aid so I can only hope I provided some comfort to help heal their wounds.
An inspirational lady, Jane McGonigal has developed a game to help us with our resilience, and some tools to help us stay positive in the face of difficulties. “Superbetter” is an app you use every day, it’s like a daily vitamin for your psyche. Every day you are encouraged to face your demons, see the positives, interact with people and take care of yourself in a loving and caring way.
Superbetter looks at 4 different kinds of “strength”. Emotional, Mental, Social and Physical (which impacts on our emotional health). And all of this backed by scientific studies and excellence. As you go through, you can look at the science behind why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Superbetter helped Jane through a 3 month concussion illness as well as providing future proof emotionally resilient people all over the world. Join me on Superbetter, I’ll be encouraging our team to be Superbetter !