Last month was a little bit serious. But this month, we'll be using whimsy, silliness, and comedy to improve our resilience. Our resilience is determined by the strength and speed with which we recover from adversity. When we are resilient, we are less afraid of failure, more comfortable with discomfort, more tolerant of stress. We may think that the opposite of stress and fear is calm, but often, it's humour.
Do you ever find yourself emboldened to take on a dare from a friend, but then find yourself too scared of rejection when it counts? Jia Jiang believes you can build confidence by training yourself to accept rejection. He is the creator of 100 Days of Rejection, a program that forces you to repeatedly and almost compulsively put yourself in uncomfortable situations. The result is usually not successful, but more often than not they are comical. You may also find yourself surprised at the generosity of humanity, especially when they are caught off guard.
Pixar's 2015 movie Inside Out is a startlingly poignant kid's movie about the complexity of human emotion. Surprisingly relevant and relatable--The New York Times' review is worth reading, but only after giving the movie a watch. Just trust us.
Kelly McGonigal discusses how to use stress for your own benefit in this Ted Talk. There have been many studies that indicate that chronic stress increases your risk of chronic disease and therefore death. But fortunately, Kelly elucidates that the harmful health effects of stress do not have to be inevitable if you implement a few simple interventions. If you're interested, the study she references can be found here.
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