Mental Health and Wellbeing Coordinator

Resilience, Lockdowns and a Pandemic

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” Gever Tulley.

Dear Families,

During our lives, we will all often experience times when things become challenging or difficult. It can be said that many of these experiences help us to grow. However, some of these times can prove to be more difficult than others. It’s during these times that being resilient can help us to recover and push through. Being resilient is the ability for us to recover quickly or bounce back from difficulties we may experience. If you know a friend who is resilient, you may notice that they seem to be more positive than others or may appear to be more optimistic. Some other benefits of being resilient could include remaining focused on a task when faced with challenges or setbacks. It may also help us to understand that struggles in life can help us to grow, rather than looking at them and thinking “Why me?”

I’ve become a little bit addicted to the news lately. I keep looking at what is happening in Australia in relation to COVID-19. What’s happening in NSW? What about Brisbane? How many people are vaccinated? How many local cases? How many in quarantine? My mind is going crazy. When I step back and consider the pandemic, I wonder about my kids – my kids at home and my kids at OGPS. What could they learn from all of this? Listening to John Hattie at an online conference yesterday, he posed the question, “How can our kids be the beneficiaries of COVID?” There will be many things learned, but one thing I think our students will gain is an increase in resilience. The quote above by Gever Tulley sums it all up for me. We need to all experience difficulties to help us be more resilient, and all the lockdowns have certainly brought us many challenges.  

You may consider choosing one or two of the following to complete together this week with the family to help build resilience.

• Name something bad that happened to you in your past and then say something good that happened from of it.
• Create and act out a short play about a time when someone failed at something or found the going tough. In the play, show how the character bounced back from the challenging situation.
• Think about a time when the going was tough. After a few minutes of thinking about that time, notice how your body is. Now, stand up tall and lift your shoulders. Take a few deep breaths. What do you notice?
• Play a board game or card game together. When finished, talk about how it felt to win or how losing made you feel.
• Go on a long walk or bike ride together where you are all pushed out of your comfort zones.
• Talk about the different areas in your life that you are resilient. Are there any areas that you are not so resilient? Why do you think this is? How could you change this?

I hope we can all find some good to come out of this pandemic. Stay safe and be kind to yourself and others. 

Thanks for your support,

Andy McNeilly

Mental Health and Wellbeing Coordinator