Resiliency is an important factor to have present in one’s life. Taking this resiliency quiz opened my eyes to how I am not as resilient as I thought I was. Some of the question asked in this quiz made me assess my own culture, such as gender and sexual orientation. A crucial part of being resilient is realizing what protective factors are present in one’s life. Many of the factors surprised me because I did not even know they were considered protective factors. Identifying the resiliency builders I would like to add to my repertoire was easy because a majority of those builders are not present in my everyday, and I would like to change that.
However, I know it is going to be difficult to add these into my life. The resiliency framework is used in all aspect of social work. I decided to use it to promote resiliency in people with eating disorder. It is important for a person to have great environment protective factors so that they know there are people around them who believe in them, and are encouraging them to get better. This resiliency quiz helped me understand that there are some changes in my life that have to make so I can lead a healthier life. Reaction
When I took social work classes in my undergraduate career, resiliency was something that was always talked about. I understood the importance of resiliency in one’s career and home life, and even noticed times in my life where I was resilient. Taking this quiz was interesting because there is not a answer at the end that tells you how resilient you are. I am so used to taking quizzes that labels you as something, that is was refreshing to take this quiz and figure out who you are on your own. There was no right or wrong answer to the questions.
It just focused on what your reaction to the questions were. In the end, I really enjoyed taking this quiz. Some of the questions really made me stop and think about them, whereas there were others that were easy to answer. One of the statements that made me stop and think was, “I am involved in one or more positive after-work or after-school hobbies or activities (Henderson, 2014). ” This questions made me assess my own culture in regard to gender. In todays society, women all still having to prove themselves in the workforce.
We are still getting paid less then men, and the majority of women are working harder and longer hours then men. Yet, if women are leaving work early to go home and see their family or going to a club they belong to it is used against them in regard to why they are not in higher management jobs or getting paid the same amount as men. However, if men did these things their bosses would see nothing wrong and probably encourage them to go. Women are not allowed to have a life outside of work or family, and because of this many women do not have something in their life that helps them decompress after a hard day at work.
Another statement that made me think a little bit was, “My options and ideas are listened to and respected at my work or in school (Henderson, 2014). ” This statement made me assess my culture in regard to sexual orientation. I have a diverse group of friends, some who are homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual. A majority of my homosexual friends are always telling me stories about how in work or classes many people glance over their ideas or opinions because of their sexual orientation.
I cannot believe that their are still people in this world who discriminate against people just because they are attracted to someone of the same-sex. It is hard enough to be open about your sexual orientation, one should not have to hide in their work or school just so they can get the respect. I answered yes to this question because my classmates are coworkers do listen to my ideas and opinions and respect them even if they do not agree with them. Everyone’s ideas and opinions should be respected no matter who they love because we all matter. Assessment and Protective Factors
In regard to my assessment on resiliency it could be a lot better. I am the type of person that carries things with me, and sometimes blame myself for things that I had no control over. There are certain situations that I am able to bounce back from, and other times that I hold it in for to long and let it consume me until I breakdown. I need to focus on letting things go, and realizing that it helps to talk about these situation with someone I trust. One thing that I really have to focus on is to stop blaming myself for things that go bad in my life and the lives of people close to me.
It is hard to get out of this framework of believing that if I do something wrong people are going to judge me for my failures and not my achievements. It is going to take a lot of hard work to get myself out of this framework, and understand that there are people in my life will always believe in me. An important part of resiliency is make sure you have many protective factors in your life. A protective factors that I have present in my life is exercise. This is an important factor because it helps me be healthy, release any stress I have, and clears my mind of everything it going on in my life.
Another protective factor present in my life today is a great support system. I have many people in my life who are always there for me whenever I need them. My parents always pushed me to do my best, and let me grow as an individual. My friends are are always a phone call away whenever I need someone to talk to, and never judge me on anything I do or say. Having a good support system allows me be more confident in my decisions and know that there are people to catch me if I fall. The last protective factor that is present in my life today would be having great life skills.
Having life skills is important in the workforce, school environment, and home environment. By setting goals and deadlines for myself, it helps me not stress about when everything is due. I am able to break everything down and complete it in enough time that I am not doubting myself or stressing out about it. Resiliency Builders Looking over the list of resiliency builders, there are definitely some that I want to add to my repertoire. The first resiliency builder I would like to add is self-worth (Henderson, 2014). I have a problem believing in myself, and having the confidence to stick up for myself in situations.
The past couple years there have been friends that made me doubt myself, and chipped away my self-confidence by making little statements about me in a joking way so I was not sure if they were serious or not. These statements started getting bigger and closer together, and it made me not believe in myself anymore. After awhile I realized what these friends were doing, and removed them from my life. I added friends to my support system that encourage me to do things, and are to this day helping me build up my self-confidence and self-worth.
By getting rid of petty friends and adding friends who like me for me into my support system, I am able to finally feel like I am worthy of people liking me. Another resiliency builder that I would like to add is flexibility (Henderson, 2014). To me it is important to set guidelines and have plans when trying to do something. I always become a little stressed out when something does not go according to plan or gets off track. In any line of work one needs to be flexible because things do not always go as planned.
I want to be able to adjust to changes happening in my work or home life, and not completely freak out when something does not go the way I want it to. Something that will help through this change is my support system. Doing things spur of the moment, or making changes to my day to day life will help me be add flexibility to me life. Being open to change is something that I definitely need to work on, and being flexible will help me do that. Resiliency Framework The resiliency framework was an important aspect of figuring out ones own resiliency. An important part of the resiliency framework is environment protective factors.
One has to make sure that they are in the right environment that while help them build up their resilience. A specific population that I would like to work with is individuals diagnosed with eating disorders. Eating disorders is something I was always interested, especially since I had personal knowledge of what individuals with eating disorders go through. There are many ways that I could promote resiliency through environmental protective factors in individuals with eating disorders. One way to do this is make sure that the individual has a great support system.
A way to do this is talk to the parents of the individual, and make sure they are encouraging their child to eat a little bit more each meal until they come to a point where they are not counting every calorie going into their body. It is also important for parents to understand that their child is fighting a disease, and they should be patient with them. A change will not happen overnight, it takes time to help someone beat an eating disorder. Another way to promote resiliency in individuals with eating disorders is to make sure they have a good friend base.
It is not helpfully to an person if they have friends who also have an eating disorder, and encouraging them to stop eating or throwing up after a meal. A person has to understand that those type of people are toxic, and all only hurting them. I would help the individual understand that are two types of people in their life. There are the people who are encouraging you and helping you beat this disorder, and there are the people who are encouraging you to continue acting on your disorder because it makes them feel better.
The last way I would help a client beat their disorder is to make sure they have someone they can talk to about why the disorder started, if anyone contributed to it, their struggles they are going through to become healthier, etc. This may be in the form of a counselor or therapist. Talking helps, and having someone to express your anger, happiness, frustration, sadness on will allow an individual with an eating disorder to open up more and realize that they need to change their behavior before they get sicker or even die. These are just some of the ways I can promote environmental protect factors to people diagnosed with an eating disorder.
