Resilience Strategy Menu

These strategies were compiled from the Army Reserve Resilience Skills Training Manual.

(“Master Resilience Training.” U.S. Army Reserve, www.usar.army.mil/MRT/.)

We've put them into practice by applying them to real life situations in our stories on this page. Here's a list of our favorites:

Hunt the Good Stuff - find something positive in the situation, identify it, and be grateful for it

Activating Event, Thoughts, and Consequences - separate what happened from what you're feeling and how it affects things

Energy Management - breathing exercises

Avoid Thinking Traps - mind reading, them them them, me me me, everything everything everything, baby with the bathwater, jumping to conclusions, always always always, no big deal

Put it in Perspective - best case, worst case, most likely and make a plan

Mental Games - use a quick activity to refocus your brain

Real-Time Resilience - fight back with sentence starters: "That's not completely true because…", "A more positive way of seeing this is…" or "The thing I can do about this is…"

Identify Character Strengths in Self and Others - look at your strengths and the ones of the people around you to figure out where to go next

Assertive Communication - purposeful talking with others to establish what you need/want