I Will Survive … and Thrive
We hear a lot of survival stories from caregivers. And we get it. We all have times when we feel that we may be heading toward burnout or that things are spinning out of control. It takes all of our effort just to survive in such situations, and it’s hard.
In times of stress, our brain may call on conventional defenses such as fight, flight, freeze, submit, and attach to help us survive. Even when we are experiencing the most distressing emotions, the brain is still doing everything it can to protect us. And survival is no small feat.
But is it enough? With this week’s topic, we hope to give you some tools that will help you move from survival to thrival.
According to the Urban Dictionary, thrival is “when someone has moved out of survival mode and into an optimal state of health, vitality, joy and wellbeing.” Moving from survival to thrival starts with NOTICING. Notice your own signs of stress and burnout, and notice when these feelings tend to strike. Keep a record of when and where you feel like you are in acute survival mode. This will help you plan and practice strategies – not just coping strategies but thriving tools – so the next time something like that occurs, you will be able to regulate your emotions and get back on the path from survival to thrival.
Here are some practices that may help you thrive:
Practice mindfulness. Focus on your breath. Meditate.
Listen to your body’s somatic responses, and find ways to respond and soothe those needs. For example, if you notice you are getting really hot, go outside for some fresh air to cool down, or drink some cold water. If you feel your muscles tensing, do some stretches, work out, or just move around.
Request a delay. Hold off on your response as long as you can to help give your body time to regulate and communicate with your brain.
Thank your brain for keeping you safe, and remind it that you are safe and working on your adaptive responses to stress.
Here are more tools to thrive.
And remember what we said earlier this month about the benefits of regulating our emotions. Self-regulation helps us understand and manage our emotions and responses so that we can control them instead of them controlling us … and doing so allows us to thrive.
While we want to continue hearing survival stories from caregivers, we also want to hear about how they’ve gone from survival to thrival. What’s YOUR thrival story?