1. Meditation - Heartfulness
Bhanu Bahl, PhD

2. Class schedule and location
8/15: Last class!!
Lahey Room
Guest speaker :
George Zogbi, Lincoln Lab, MIT

3. Welcome to Meditation Course - Week 9
Class Duration: 50 min Topics: - Getting ready - Building Resilience - Relaxation & Meditation exercise - Thoughtful Observation & Wrap up

4. What is Resilience? Slumdog Millionaire (2008) movie

5. What is Resilience?
How do people deal with difficult events that change their lives?
family and relationship problems
serious health problems
workplace and financial stressors
Most react with flood of strong emotions and a sense of uncertainty
Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress
It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences
It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed

6. Building Resilience : Strategies
Humor: diffuses stress
Containing Thinking: compartmentalize thoughts
Distraction: TV, playing a sport, exercise, walk in the park
Seek Help: Make connections
Being Hopeful: Maintain a hopeful outlook
Positive View: Nurture a positive view of yourself
Acceptance: Accept that change is a part of living, an opportunity for self-discovery
Maintaining Perspective: Keep things in perspective
Flexible Thinking: Find alternate path towards your goals
Taking Actions: decisive and timely

7. Building Resilience- exercise
Lets spot Resilience strategies in the following video
Money Pit (1986) movie clip-

8. Language of Resilience
Develop language of resilience with kids , examples :
“Come on, laugh it off”, Strategy: Humor
“Don’t let this spoil everything”, Strategy: Containing thinking
“Let’s take a break”, Strategy: Distraction
“Who have you spoken to about this?”, Strategy: Seeking help
“I know it looks bad now but you will get through this”, Strategy: Offering hope
“What can you learn from this so it doesn’t happen next time?”, Strategy: Positive reframing
“Don’t worry – relax and see what happens!”, Strategy: Acceptance
“This isn’t the end of the world”, Strategy: Maintaining perspective
“You could be right. But have you thought about … ”, Strategy: Flexible thinking
“What can we do about this?”, Strategy: Taking action

9. Building Resilience & Meditation
Raised self-awareness- self image not at mercy of situations
Helps regulate emotions; “Feel angry” vs “be angry”
Clarity of thought for taking decisions
Improved focus to compartmentalize the problem
Creativity allows looking for alternate paths
Improved relationships for seeking help

10. “Let’s practice”: Heartfulness Meditation Relaxation & Meditation:

11. Thank you for participating. See you next week!