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Resilience through Recovery and Optimism by Imagining the Future: This Weeks RUnlimited Newsletter. 7.30.24

Updated: Jul 30


  1. Resilience Quote. "What happens behind the velvet rope of elite sport is that we spend way more time talking about daily recovery than we talk about working hard." High-performance psychologist, Mike Gervais' speciality is mastery. Mike's approach to mastering our thoughts and emotions has helped Olympians win gold medals, the Seattle Seahawks win the Superbowl, and CEOs take their companies to the next level. Quote taken from a Bit of Optimism podcast with Simon Sinek, 7.23.24.

  2. Resilience in Research about Future Oriented Optimism. Remembering the past and imagining the future are hallmarks of mental time travel. We provide evidence that such experiences are influenced by individual differences in temporal and affective biases in cognitive style, particularly brooding rumination (a negative past-oriented bias) and optimism (a positive future-oriented bias). Participants completed a seven-day, cellphone-based experience-sampling study of temporal orientation and mental imagery. Multilevel models showed that individual differences in brooding rumination predicted less vivid and positive past- and future-oriented thoughts, even after controlling for depressed mood. People high in brooding rumination were also more likely to report thinking about a past experience when probed at random during the day. Conversely, optimists were more likely to report more vivid and positive future-oriented, but not past-oriented thoughts, although they did not report thinking more or less often about the past and future. The results suggest that temporal and affective biases in cognitive style influence how people think about the past and future in daily life. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6382594/

  3. Resilient Reflection from Resilience Unlimited. I write about how Values-Driven Routines and Spiritual Intelligence are two of the Seven Meaning Making Markers required for unlimited resilience. https://a.co/d/5eiAFGl


The combination of a spiritual practice being a values-driven routine provides a more robust conditions-based resilience. Although not in my book, I appreciate Eugene Peterson's insight here from his book, Under the Unpredictable Plant. "The contemplative life generates and releases an enormous amount of energy into the world--the enlivening energy of God's grace rather than the enervating frenzy of our pride." Pausing in prayer or meditation during the day can diminish cortisol levels and heighten the possiblities of resilience. You have then made liminal space to find your best path.


4. Resilient Vocabulary Word. Festina Lente, Latin, for "slow haste." It's a classical addage, according to Wikipedia, that means to proceed with speed but also with prudence. This is number 2 on my Meaning Map under Values and Virtues to practice in my Spiritual Intelligence.



I am excited about training Resilience Unlmited in Anchorage, Alaska on 8-9 August 24 to U.S. Army Chaplains. Chaplain will receive a Certification from Trekk Unlimited LLC to train Soldiers how to have unlimited resilience. If you are a Chaplain, Therapist, Clergy, or a Leader and have questions about this training, email us at info@trekkunlimited.com.

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