Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity

Watch Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity

  • 2019
  • 1 Season

Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity, is an eye-opening and thought-provoking series from The Great Courses Signature Collection, led by renowned meditation teacher Molly Birkholm. The series consists of 12 lectures, each 30 minutes long, where Birkholm draws from her own experiences, wisdom of ancient philosophies and practices, and scientific research to explore the concept of resilience, its power to overcome adversity, and how to cultivate it.

The first few lectures serve to set the foundation for the series. Birkholm begins by addressing the idea of resilience from a broad perspective and defining what it means, why it is crucial in our modern lives, and how it can be developed. She then guides the audience through some basic techniques, such as mindfulness meditation, breathing exercises, and body scan, which are used throughout the series as a means of cultivating and strengthening resilience.

As the series progresses, Birkholm delves deeper into the nuances of resilience and provides a wealth of information, strategies, and real-life examples. She shows how resilience can be improved by building positive relationships, finding purpose, setting goals, practicing gratitude, pursuing physical activities, and developing a positive mindset. Birkholm also emphasizes the importance of self-compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance in developing resilience, and how to develop resilience through adversity.

Some of the most fascinating parts of Building Your Resilience:Finding Meaning in Adversity, are the stories shared by Birkholm. She shares lessons of tragedy, suffering, and loss, from her own life, including a car accident that left her with severe injuries and chronic pain, and the death of her brother from drug addiction. While heart-wrenching, these stories are shared to illustrate how one can gain strength and resilience in the face of overwhelming adversity. Birkholm's gentle and compassionate approach helps to provide a safe and supportive environment for viewers to acknowledge, explore, and manage their own challenges.

Throughout the series, Birkholm incorporates experiential activities for viewers to participate in, which help to reinforce and apply the concepts of resilience. These activities are designed to build self-awareness, clarify values, and guide viewers in developing their own resilience strategies.

Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity is a series that stands out for its thoughtfulness and depth. Birkholm navigates complex topics with compassion and expertise, using a combination of science and ancient wisdom to illustrate the importance, benefits, and practical application of resilience in daily life. The mindfulness techniques and experiential activities included in the series provide a sense of empowerment, promoting the idea that resilience can be developed regardless of the individual's background or experiences. Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity is an engaging and inspiring series that is sure to be a valuable resource for anyone looking to cultivate resilience, compassion, and purpose.

In conclusion, if you are looking for practical advice on how to develop resilience, find meaning in adversity, and seek a more fulfilling life, the Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity series is an excellent choice to consider. With Molly Birkholm leading the way, viewers can expect a thoughtful and engaging exploration of this topic with a broad range of perspectives, techniques, and examples to apply to their daily lives.

Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity is a series that is currently running and has 1 seasons (24 episodes). The series first aired on May 24, 2019.

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Seasons
Your Hero
24. Your Hero
May 24, 2019
Resilience, one of the most important skills we can master, is essential to navigating life successfully and reaching our fullest potential. As we each go through our own hero
Practice 7: Finding Safety with Yoga Nidra
23. Practice 7: Finding Safety with Yoga Nidra
May 24, 2019
In this practice, you'll learn how to find safety and peacefulness within yourself. You'll be guided through a very deep relaxation, a safe and peaceful awareness similar to what you might experience just before sleep. This is the peace that is always available to you, no matter what's going on around you in the outside world, a stillness you can always access.
Practice 6: Evoking the Relaxation Response
22. Practice 6: Evoking the Relaxation Response
May 24, 2019
In this practice, you'll learn how to trigger your body's parasympathetic nervous system, your relaxation response, whenever you want to calm down. You'll use your breath to continually invite your body to relax, and then notice your body's response without judgment. These techniques are always available to you and can be applied at any time throughout your day.
Practice 5: Practicing Mindfulness
21. Practice 5: Practicing Mindfulness
May 24, 2019
In this mindfulness practice, you'll continue to build awareness of your physical body, emotions, and mind. You'll learn how to witness your thoughts and emotions in the present moment as they move in and out of your mind, without labeling them good or bad. This powerful practice will open up a new way for you to relate to your own thoughts, memories, and beliefs.
Practice 4: Relaxing Yoga for Self-Care
20. Practice 4: Relaxing Yoga for Self-Care
May 24, 2019
This yoga practice (whether sitting or lying down) releases your body's tension and encourages you to connect to your physical experiences on a deeper level. You'll learn movements and breathing techniques that can be used during an average day at a desk or in a car. You'll learn to let the breath carry the pose and find that union between body, mind, breath, and spirit.
Practice 3: Promoting Sleep
19. Practice 3: Promoting Sleep
May 24, 2019
This practice will guide you through the steps of preparing for sleep. You'll learn how to focus your attention on the good things that happened during your day as you start to settle in. You'll enjoy relaxing all parts of the body (front, back, and sides), getting rid of tension wherever you're carrying it. The guided meditation at the end of the practice might lead you directly into sleep.
Practice 2: De-stressing with Your Breath
18. Practice 2: De-stressing with Your Breath
May 24, 2019
Learning to work with breathing is particularly powerful, as breath is the only function of the autonomic nervous system we can control. You'll practice the three-part yogic breath, relaxation breath, energizing breath, and alternate-nostril breathing, among others. You'll develop a better understanding of the yogic saying: The mind affects the breath, and the breath affects the mind.
Practice 1: Building Resilience
17. Practice 1: Building Resilience
May 24, 2019
Instructor Birkholm takes you through a gentle yoga practice to help build awareness of your body, feelings, and beliefs. No yoga experience is necessary. You'll be guided by this step-by-step instruction, which is modeled both standing and sitting. At the end of the practice, you'll experience a deep relaxation pose, resting in the stillness that is always available to you.
Opening to Joy and Gratitude
16. Opening to Joy and Gratitude
May 24, 2019
Authentic, lasting joy is an internal experience, not dependent upon any circumstances outside of ourselves. Learn how to find authentic joy by opening up to all of life (allowing yourself to feel the full range of your feelings, including those emotions you've been taught to bury) and taking responsibility for your own choices in your unique journey.
Finding Safety
15. Finding Safety
May 24, 2019
When we feel unsafe, our brains become stuck in the response of the sympathetic nervous system and we have very little access to higher cognitive functioning. Learn how to increase your number of protective factors, increasing your feeling of safety and your resilience. The goal isn't to eliminate the risk of danger, but rather to have as much control over it as possible.
Cultivating Community and Connection
14. Cultivating Community and Connection
May 24, 2019
Human beings are wired for connection to others; our initial cognitive development depends on physical touch, and our mirror neurons teach us how to be human based on our interactions with others. Learn how to develop quality connections with others, connections that will help you thrive and increase resilience. Your instructor shares the inspiring stories of two individuals who did just that.
Suzi Landolphi on Post-Traumatic Growth
13. Suzi Landolphi on Post-Traumatic Growth
May 24, 2019
You'll thoroughly enjoy this enlightening conversation between your instructor and Suzi Landolphi, a well-known leader in the post-traumatic growth movement, who currently works with combat veterans as a PATHH Guide (Progressive and Alternative Training for Healing Heroes). Just as trauma can be transmitted to successive generations, so can post-traumatic growth.
Discovering Post-Traumatic Growth
12. Discovering Post-Traumatic Growth
May 24, 2019
Those who can process their trauma can move forward to become stronger, wiser, and more resilient. Using Harriet Beecher Stowe as a fascinating example, you'll learn how post-traumatic growth can lead to improved personal strength, the opening of new possibilities, spiritual change, and greater appreciation for life. We can become more resilient because of, not despite, adversity.
Understanding Trauma
11. Understanding Trauma
May 24, 2019
All trauma, whether caused by a single event or prolonged exposure to a traumatic pattern, affects our physical body and our mind. Trauma causes specific changes in the brain and even in the genetics of reproduction. Learn why, without help, the mind and body can get stuck in the loop of the sympathetic nervous system's trauma response. And how, with appropriate help, the mind and body can heal.
Finding Equanimity with Mindfulness
10. Finding Equanimity with Mindfulness
May 24, 2019
Our lives can feel like maelstroms of sensory input, thoughts, and emotions. But there is a way to find the stillness that permanently exists beneath it all: meditation. Validated by thousands of scientific studies, meditation has been proven to enhance almost every aspect of life. Experience the power of mindfulness meditation and learn how it can help you find peace in the present moment.
The Rewards of Sleep
9. The Rewards of Sleep
May 24, 2019
We often think of sleep as simply what's left over at the end of the day. But to the contrary: Healthy sleep patterns can transform your life with improved physical and mental health, better memory, and even increased longevity. Learn how to prepare your bedroom, your body, and your mind for high-quality sleep, and the many ways in which your phone can both hinder and help you achieve that goal.
The Practice of Self-Care
8. The Practice of Self-Care
May 24, 2019
Does self-care sound uncomfortably self-focused and egotistical to you? If so, remember that caring for yourself is a crucial component of your own resilience, as well as giving you the energy and ability to help others. Learn how the Wheel of Life exercise can help you determine where you're lacking in self-care, and how to create and manage your own Self-Care Journal to improve your resilience.
Strengthening Mental Resilience
7. Strengthening Mental Resilience
May 24, 2019
Our mind has the power to make or break our ability to recover from adversity. While we can't completely control what we think, we can control how we understand and react to those thoughts. Explore the important relationships between your thoughts, belief systems, and core values, and learn why psychological flexibility is the foundation of mental resilience.
Improving Emotional Resilience
6. Improving Emotional Resilience
May 24, 2019
We've been socialized to believe positive emotions are good and negative emotions are bad, but that is far from the truth. Our emotions are simply our individual responses to the situations we experience; we can accept, pay attention to, and learn from all of them. Explore some coping mechanisms for regulating your emotions, which some scientists see as the single most vital aspect of resilience.
Mastering Physical Resilience
5. Mastering Physical Resilience
May 24, 2019
We often think of physical resilience as our body's physical strength and fitness (the stronger we are, the quicker we'll bounce back). But that's only part of it. Learn about the additional skills needed to recover well from physical stress, illness, or injury. You'll see that building physical resilience is not just what you do, it's also how and why you do it.
The Consequences of Stress
4. The Consequences of Stress
May 24, 2019
Humans have always experienced periods of acute stress, and we have the nervous system to prove it. Explore how the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for the fight-flight-freeze response, and how the parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body when the cause of stress has passed. But if the cause of stress becomes chronic, serious long-term health consequences can result.
The Resilient Human Spirit
3. The Resilient Human Spirit
May 24, 2019
Learn how humans have nurtured a spirit of resilience for thousands of years through instinct, deep listening, the Golden Rule, rites of passage, and faith (whether spiritual or not). Studying these practices, scientists are now confirming and promoting some of these techniques as ways to process adverse experiences and return to harmony.
The Hero's Journey
2. The Hero's Journey
May 24, 2019
Whether or not you think of yourself as a hero, chances are the adversity in your life has caused you to walk the hero's journey. Discover what that journey entails (illustrated by your instructor's own life) from initial call to adventure through the ordeal and rebirth, until stepping into your new truth in a world that no longer seems as ordinary as you'd once thought.
The Foundation of Resilience
1. The Foundation of Resilience
May 24, 2019
Will we be crippled by adversity or see an opportunity for growth? The answer lies in our ability to be resilient. Meet the eight themes of resilience this course will bring to life: core values and purpose, finding meaning in adversity, equanimity, self-care, healthy coping skills, a positive sense of self, support and connection with others, and a proactive worldview. #Better Living
Description
Where to Watch Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity
Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity is available for streaming on the The Great Courses Signature Collection website, both individual episodes and full seasons. You can also watch Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity on demand at Amazon and Hoopla.
  • Premiere Date
    May 24, 2019