Resiliency

Developing Resiliency seems to be a popular topic to think and talk about at the moment. 

This is the Japanese primary school our eldest son went
to for a bit over a year when he was six and seven. It is
a period we remember with pain and sometimes regret.
However, I do think that we all grew through the time
that we struggled through the challenges we faced here.

Scientific studies have shown that resilient people show lower levels of depression and are more likely to develop personally as a result of adversity than people with low levels of resilience. (from the post linked towards the bottom of this post)

It's a first world problem, of course. But something that we do well to be aware of. In some ways we can cushion our children's growing up years, but the reality is that we can't control everything.

The life our family leads, though we lead it in first world countries, brings a little less control than perhaps we'd have if our children lived all their growing up years in the same suburb or town. However, we still face the temptation to make their lives easier by smoothing some of the bumps out and therefore removing opportunities for them to grow and develop life skills that will help them later in life.

This post got me thinking about how going to Australia in June is building resiliency in us all.

Here are a couple of relevant points from the blog post: 

• Teach your child to identify struggles as challenges to overcome, not tests to avoid, and teach them phrases such as “this too shall pass” or “every challenge makes you stronger” to spark this outlook.
• Introduce new experiences to your child which will help them step outside their comfort zone, such as playing with children who speak another language and trying new foods.

For starters there'll be plenty of "outside the comfort zone experiences". The change will also be full of struggles and bumps to ride over. I need to remind myself of this post when I'm feeling sad that our work is causing various challenges for our kids.

Here's a post that is more focused on adults than children.
Some points from this post:

Focus on building and maintaining relationships.Be optimistic.Keep learning.

How about you, do you take steps to build resiliency in your kids, or yourself? I'd love you to share some.