Strategies to Build Resilience

(Resilience building at DWP, Government of UK)

Hello everyone! My name is Kuwarjeet Singh Arora and I am a fourth-year journalism student at Toronto Metropolitan University. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Hirenn’s resiliency workshop. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about being resilient.

My understanding of resilience

A resilient person has the ability to easily recover from difficult or tough situations, and resilience is defined as persistence, strength, determination, and patience. You are not inherited with resiliency rather it’s something you build up throughout time.

Resilience is a capacity that everyone possesses, and it can be learned and developed. Resilient people have strong relationships, good problem-solving skills, are self-aware, find meaning in their lives, are self-motivated, optimistic, and have good relationships with others.

The ability to be resilient is universal and comes through experience. Resilient people often get things done regardless of the circumstances.

My learnings from Hiren’s Workshop

Hiren's presentation taught me many things, but the ability to take positive aspects from negative outcomes stood out most to me. His presentation included a discussion about the positives of not being selected for a job after an interview.

He stressed ways in which we can take advantage of positive experiences, such as interviewing, growing as a person, and looking for other opportunities. Rather than dwelling on past mistakes, I learned to take positives from the experiences.

Things I enjoyed at the Illuminate x Hiren workshop

What I enjoyed most about this workshop was how engaging it was when it came to Hiren interacting with us. He was pretty good at keeping us engaged throughout the whole workshop. He used this software called Mentimeter which allowed us to give our thoughts on questions he had as shown here in the picture.

I really enjoyed this because it made me more engaged towards his presentation. By answering these questions I was learning how to be positive about negative situations. Where a big part of it was that I am on the same boat like my peers.

Being Resilient in my future

A big part of being resilient is never giving up and getting things done no matter the circumstances. This workshop allowed me to explore different tools and tricks to enhance my ability to thrive and solve conflicts using positive thinking. My goal for the future is to be resilient in my reporting of complex issues.