Two years ago today while I was at the start of my a blog a day challenge I wrote about the importance of developing resilience. (https://amandacomms1.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/six-elements-of-resilience) I wanted to look back from this position of facing eight months when I have been pushed to the limits.
If you are a regular reader of his blog you will appreciate how important I think resilience is for all PR and communication people. It is what keeps us well, fit and ready for action. All too often we believe we are indestructible and can keep going no matter what. I have learnt that this is simply not the case.
So, I highlighted six things that I felt were essential to build resilience. They were:
1. A strong support network including both family and friends
2. Support from the team around you at work
3. A clear role and purpose to the work you are doing
4. Honest and useful feedback about what you are doing
5. Time to recover and spend time doing something that makes you smile
6. The ability to step back and take a detached look at things
I think all these things are still really important and I have relied on them quite heavily in recent months. But the key to resilience has to come from within. In 2016 I hadn’t given the need for inner strength quite the focus that it really needs to have for resilience to exist.
How we respond to situations that we face is really down to us and while other people can assist the future lies in our own hands. It links to our views and beliefs about the world around us and our place in it.
We need to be constantly working on our minds and thoughts. It means finding ways to build strength and to keep our thoughts in check. The more we do this in the times when we are not facing extreme pressure then the better able we will be to respond.
I have worked hard on dealing with my thoughts over recent years and I know that I have benefitted. Without these efforts I would have been in a worse place.
Two years ago I said communicators needed to get training and support to build resilience. Today it is probably even more important and yet we are still not talking about it. It has to change.
Amandacomms's Blog 
Hi Amanda,
Couldn’t agree more, as one now working helping to develop community resilience, it is clear that the need to create conditions for individuals, families and communities to be more resilient is paramount. Particularly so in a climate of diminishing resources and increasing demands on public sector services.
One aspect of protecting and enhancing our personal resilience can be to address the elements that are key to our overall health and wellbeing. The 5 Ways to Well-being offers an interesting, accessible approach to trying to address and achieve balance and is well worth a closer look. We are using this to underpin and inform some key strands of activity and development within the Suffolk system and will be launching a major initiative on this next month. Based on the attached link but developed much further for use locally both at individual and organisational level.
Click to access mhf-5-ways-a3-vert-bubble-poster.pdf
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