Personal Resilience: How We Missed the Mark
John Shuford
Corrections and law enforcement are stressful occupations. It is impossible to avoid stress, but we can manage stress and greatly reduce chronic stress, which does serious harm to staff. Some of that harm manifests as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, marriage problems, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and a shortened life span, along with low staff morale and suicidal thinking. A contributing factor in every one of these conditions is isolation: isolation from the community, isolation from intimate relationships within the family, isolation at work due to a lack of trust, and isolation from self because of being trained to disconnect from our own emotions do the job. This isolation in relationships is caused more by organizational stressors than operational stressors. To counter this isolation, we need to create a sense of a trusting community with connection among staff, in other words, we need to de-isolate staff.
There are two approaches to reducing chronic stress: improving organizational resilience and improving individual staff resilience.
The former was presented in a previous article on “Improving Morale,‚ and the latter is the subject of this article.
There have been other articles on personal resilience, but they have been limited in scope, e.g., yoga, meditation, diet, and exercise. There is much more we can do to improve individual staff members’ resilience, which will improve the resilience of their teams, units, facilities and ultimately the organization as a whole. Significant long-lasting change comes from the bottom up, from the staff rather than from the top down. Policies are important, but they are only part of the answer. The culture in the organization needs to change and that happens by changing relationships among staff. As many of us know, “culture will eat policy for lunch.‚
Improving Staff Resilience
Improving staff resilience can be done by teaching life management skills. It may not be the responsibility of the organization to oversee individuals’ personal lives, but it will further the mission of the organization if it teaches staff life management skills in orientation and in-service training. In general, staff do not learn these skills anywhere else, and having an emotionally healthy and resilient staff is obviously in the best interest of the organization.
This article will approach improving staff resilience in two ways: what we do and how we think. What we do involves the following: family and friends, positive social interactions, exercise, meditation, sleep, and flow [which is explained later]. How we think includes: mindfulness [savoring, breath, body, and heart focus], visualization, attitude [optimism, reframing, gratitude, and forgiveness], belief, and goals.
Having a good support system of family and friends is much more important to us than just having good mental health. It is also
important for physical health, especially heart health, which is a frequent problem for staff. Social isolation or loneliness produces a greater risk of heart disease than smoking, obesity, lack of exercise and excessive alcohol consumption combined (McCraty, 2015. P.82). The most important relationship is the one with a partner, whether married or not. Successful partners: (Lyubomirsky, 2007, p.143fi149)
1. Spend five more hours a week than unsuccessful partnerships being together and talking. This does not include watching TV or surfing the web, which actually rob couples of valuable intimate times.
2. Have five positive interactions for every negative interaction.
3. Communicate admiration and gratitude directly.
4. Take delight in the partner’s successes and good fortune. This is true for friendships in general.
5. Manage conflicts successfully. It helps a great deal when partners are actually good friends.
6. Share their inner life˛rituals, dreams, goals, etc.
7. Hug; hugging is an excellent intimacy and friendship booster.
If your partner is excited to tell you something, pay close attention and ask a lot of questions. Relive the experience with them. If someone is silently supportive, uninterested or points out the downside of good news, their relationships tend to be less close, less intimate, and less trusting (Lyubomirsky, 2007. P.145).
Another way to experience positive social interactions is to volunteer in your community. Not only will you improve relationships with the community, but you will experience numerous benefits yourself. Volunteering and acts of kindness diminish depression and the sense of isolation and enhance feelings of happiness, self-worth, personal control and simply witnessing these acts boosts one’s mood.
Exercise impacts nearly every system in the body. It is especially important for brain health. In fact, it may be the most important thing you can do for your brain. It improves mood [immediately], attention, memory, reaction time and increases energy, and decreases depression and anxiety. In fact, it is more effective at relieving depression than medication. Exercise improves the anatomy, physiology and function of the brain and it literally creates new brain cells protecting it from degeneration later in life (Suzuki, 2017). The legs [through exercise] are a bigger pump of blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain than the heart. Exercise increases Brain Derived Neurotropic Factors (BDNF), which is referred to as a miracle growth for the brain, and it rids the brain of toxic and harmful waste products. In essence, exercise greatly improves resiliency in staff.
Meditation is another important tool for increasing resilience. It has been used by societies for thousands of years. Science research has taken it out of the realm of ‘woo woo’ to the point where many correctional agencies are promoting it and even providing training in it. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction is one of the frequently used forms. Meditation can be as simple as sitting comfortably in a quiet place, closing your eyes, and focusing on your breathing through your nose. Anytime you become aware of a thought, simply refocus on your breathing, and do this for 20 minutes. Meditation reduces stress, depression, anxiety, PTSD symptoms and improves well-being, emotional regulation, self-esteem, optimism, life satisfaction, brain function, sleep, and immune function. Maybe, with all these benefits, that is why it has been used in most societies for so long. It works!
Sleep Better
Sleep is another important factor in staff well-being and resilience. It is especially important today with short staffing and all the double shifts staff are required to work. The quality and quantity of sleep greatly influences how much we eat, i.e., whether we are overweight or slender, how well we fight off infection, our creativity, insightfulness, and compassion. It impacts all organs of the body, including our cardiovascular and immune systems. It is considered the master regulator of hormones. Adequate sleep improves depression, brain fog, memory loss and factors leading to diabetes, as well as boosts the glymphatic system which removes toxic wastes from the brain. Because weight gain is so common in corrections, a little more detail would be useful. Inadequate sleep reduces leptin hormones in the brain, which tell us we are full and to stop eating. At the same time, it increases the ghrelin hormone which says we are hungry and to eat more. Also, the increase in cortisol in our brain from inadequate sleep increases our appetite even more (Perlmutter, 2022).
Inadequate sleep has an immediate impact. One study of military sharpshooters found that after 8 hours of sleep, their accuracy was 99.9%, while after 7 hours it dropped to 90%, and 6 hours to 60% and after 5 hours it dropped to 50% (Perlmutter, 2022).
Recommendations for good sleep are as follows: (Perlmutter, 2022)
1. Consistent wake-up time
2. Stop caffeine by 2:00 pm
3. Stop drinking alcohol 3 hours before sleep.
4. Exercise more than 4 hours before sleep
5. Sunlight every morning˛even if next to a window
6. Decrease blue light at night from TV, phone, or computer [blue light glasses on Amazon $18]
7. Room temperature 65o-75o
8. Body-mind activity like meditation before bed
Get in the Zone
The last activity we can engage in to increase personal resilience is doing activities where we experience flow. When we are engaged in a pleasurable activity where we are totally immersed in what we are doing, fully concentrating and unaware of time or anything else, we experience flow. In sports it’s called being in the ‘zone’. Examples of flow are doing activities for their own sake, such as gardening, jogging, wood working, cleaning, cooking, knitting, pottery, painting, or other crafts. In a sense it is a form of meditation. Increasing the frequency of doing a flow activity can improve resilience.
Mindfulness
The second approach to improving personal resilience is about how we think. Mindfulness has gained popularity in recent years as a means of lowering stress. Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and without judgment. It is being in the moment and not in the past or future. Ruminating about the past or worrying about the future takes away the pleasure of the current experience and usually involves negative thoughts. When you focus on your present activity, whether it’s eating, walking, cooking, or taking a shower, those negative thoughts melt away. Mark Twain put it, “I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.‚ And Thornton Wilder is quoted as saying, “My advice to you is not to enquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.‚
Mindfulness involves being aware of your body and senses. Savor the present moment. Nonjudgmental awareness reduces stress, boosts immune function, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, reduces risk of heart disease. Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, serene, have higher self-esteem and lower depression, binge eating and attention problems (Lyubomirsky, 2007). It seems clear that there are many benefits to staff for practicing mindfulness in their activities on and off the job. At any moment you can focus your attention on your breath, or you can make it a practice to sit comfortably and take slow deep breathes, letting your stomach expand and say to yourself “in and out, in and out‚ with each cycle. While doing this, you can mentally scan your body for any tension breathing in relaxation and breathing out tension. A variation of this is the heart-focused mindfulness that involves taking slow deep breathes in 10 second cycles and focusing on your chest area and experiencing gratitude or love emanating out from your heart. This practice has had amazing positive results (McCraty, 2015).
Visualization is a technique anyone can use and has been utilized by mental health therapists for decades. It involves sitting comfortably in a quiet/safe place and picturing in your mind some place you have been or imagine would be safe and peaceful. It could have been on a vacation, a scene in a movie or heard someone talking about. Mentally put yourself there and experience what it feels like with all your senses. What do you see, hear, feel, and sense in your body? Experience this for five or ten minutes. Really take in what it feels like. When you have a strong sense of the experience, mentally return to your present place. Practice this several times and it will become natural and easily accessed. You can return to this safe place anytime you want if it is just to relax or if you are feeling stressed and want to calm yourself. Simply revisiting this safe place in your mind can calm you in a matter of seconds.
Have the Right Attitude
Attitudes are important. We all know people with positive attitudes and people with negative attitudes. There is, in fact, a part of the psychology field focused on positive psychology. For years it has documented the benefits of a positive attitude and the negative consequences of a negative attitude. Optimistic thinking promotes well-being, vitality, high morale, a sense of mastery and high self-regard. The world can be a negative cruel place and at the same time be wonderful and abundant. What you look for you will often find. Optimistic thinkers don’t deny the negativity in the world, they just choose to put more energy in seeing the positive. A useful technique is reframing, which involves looking at our negative thinking and restating it in less negative or in more positive terms, i.e., looking for the lessons learned, and growth experienced from the situation. An example of this is a study where “children were taught to be more optimistic by learning to identify pessimistic explanations (My friend didn’t call me, he must hate me), dispute them (What evidence do I have that this is really true?) and then generate more optimistic alternatives (Maybe, he’s too busy). They were less depressed for an entire two years after the program‚ (Lyubomirsky, 2007, p.109).
I personally experienced reframing utilizing the STOR technique (Stop, take a slow breath, Observe and Respond rather than react.) I was viewing an anti-racism video where this woman was
making some racist and hateful comments to another person. My initial reaction was anger and wanting to tell the woman off. I stopped, took a few deep breaths, and observed my reaction and the woman’s behavior. I then responded with compassion that was a lot more effective at initiating a conversation.
A common saying is that you don’t have to believe everything you think. It is not our thoughts, but our belief that they are true that cause suffering. This happens when we don’t inquire if we absolutely know they are true. “Mary shouldn’t behave that way!‚ Well, if Mary didn’t behave that way, she would be someone else, because that is how Mary behaves. Wanting reality to be different from what it is, is hopeless, and it causes stress. It should have happened because it did in fact happen. It doesn’t mean you like it, condone it, or approve of it or that things can’t change in the future. Which is more empowering, “I shouldn’t have lost my job? or “I lost my job, what can I do now?‚ (Lyubomirsky, 2007)
Another aspect of attitude is forgiveness. Practice forgiveness for any resentment you hold. We forgive not so much because the other person deserves it, but because we deserve it. Negative emotions and feelings create disorder in our brain’s regulatory system and have a damaging impact on our well-being. Holding on to resentment is like taking poison hoping the other person will die. It hurts us, not them. The Buddhists put it this way, holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else when the time is right. You are the one getting burned. Forgiveness is a personal process and there has been much written about it. However, you practice forgiveness, you will know you have forgiven someone when you truly wish them well.
Belief and Goals
The last two aspects of how we think are belief and goals. Having a spiritual belief in something bigger than us, something to lean on, provides a sense of purpose and meaning. Feeling part of a larger community counters de-isolation. For many it may be a religion and for others it may be the interconnection of all living beings. This sense of community and connection provides a feeling of safety and a way of understanding the world and our place in it.
The last aspect is goals. Having short-term and long-term goals improves well-being. The process of working toward a challenging goal is as important as achieving it. Working toward a meaningful life goal is one of the most important strategies for well-being and resilience. A goal that is personally chosen rather than imposed by work or others will be stronger. Having goals provides a sense of purpose and a feeling of control over our lives, which adds to our self-esteem. It also adds structure and meaning for our daily activities and helps us master our use of time (Lyubomirsky, 2007).
Conclusion
The material in this article is meant to help organizations improve staff well-being by incorporating it in their staff training, both in orientation and in in-service training. Educating staff on the importance of what they do off the job and how they think will greatly improve their resilience on the job. These skills will help staff de-isolate, resulting in a transformation of the work culture.
The feeling of isolation is the cause, or it greatly worsens every one of the physical and psychological problems staff experience due to the chronic stress in most corrections and law enforcement settings. It is the organization’s responsibility to itself and its staff to provide the tools and skills necessary for staff to effectively do their job and remain on the job until retirement. This is a useful strategy to improve staff retention and thus return to full staffing. It is not an impossible goal. With the right training and policies in place, it can be accomplished.
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John A. Shuford is regarded as the national leader of the award-winning Immersion-Experiential© methodology of staff development training utilizing the 4 Es Principle [Engage, Energize, Empower, Enjoy]. He has delivered these proven innovative staff development training courses nationally and internationally for 30 years with notable results in improving work culture, morale, staff relationships and cooperation between departments. John was Correctional Training Coordinator II with the North Carolina Department of Prisons. John can be reached at info@teamcrs.org.
References
Gottlieb, Dan. Personal email on October 17, 2021.
Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want.‚ Penguin books 2007
McCraty, Rollin. “Science of the Heart; Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance, Vol.2.‚ HeartMath Institute, 2015. P.82
Perlmutter, David. “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention.‚ Episode 10, The Power of Sleep. 2022
Suzuki, Wendy. “The Brain Changing Benefits of Exercise.‚ TED talk. 2017