In this special solo episode, Nicole and Shanna reflect on the resiliency that they have each cultivated by building more awareness of how they coped during difficult times in their lives. They each share about the tools that have helped them when they are struggling as well as the awareness of the physical and mental signs that they need to turn to their resilience toolkit. Using the pandemic as a general frame and prompts posed by an email they received from the Ten Percent Happier podcast, Shanna and Nicole dive into how they feel in their bodies, hearts, and minds when they are going through challenging life events. They also discuss what they do to feel better during this process. 

Highlights:

• Prompts used to reflect on resilience from Ten Percent Happier:
• • Check in with your body. What physical feelings are predominant? Can you try tuning into those feelings, whether they're pleasant or not, and noticing them, like a witness? Can you remember how the body felt at different times during the past year, both high and low? Take a moment to remember and re-embody those times. And then: what tools or techniques were helpful to you?
  • Move to the level of the heart. What were some of the most difficult moments of the past year, and how did you get through them? And then, as before: what were the resources, inner and outer, that helped you get through?
  • And then, to the mind. See if you can remember how your mind felt at moments of resilience, openness, or sheer endurance. What did the mind feel like when it was brave, or loving, or fierce? Re-inhabiting these mental states can help the mind become more familiar with them.
  • Look at the transpersonal and interpersonal. Who and what really mattered to you over the pandemic? Which friends showed up, and which ones disappeared? What gave you purpose? What was hard to give up, and what was surprisingly easy?
• Take time to catalog what helped you through difficult times so you can revisit in the future
• Shanna's Top Reflections:
• • Everything is interconnected so fill your resilience toolkit with tools targeted at mind, body and heart
  • Running (and similar activities) can help you learn how to be comfortable with the uncomfortable
  • Notice if there are times in your life when you withdraw and connect with what those reasons are
  • Explore things you are curious about as curiosity can help you through the malaise
• Nicole's Top Reflections:
• • Listen to your body and what it's trying to tell you (hint: physical pain or discomfort may not always indicate a physical problem -- it may be emotionally triggered)
  • Make sure to constantly check in with yourself
  • Have a list of the things that help make you feel better
  • Schedule time to take care of yourself