Philanthropist Bernadette Bruckner MSc, Resilience Tips in a Time of Crisis

Covid19 – a word with such global power today that even the earth is recovering.

Check out my view on the virus with an AHA-point of view!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPYWXku0rmE&t=102s

At this moment, we are facing tremendous changes in our lifestyles, living situations, work, and interpersonal relationships. And after the crisis is BEFORE the crisis.

This could look scary OR from another point of view, packed with tons of possibilities for how something we feel inside can be turned OUTSIDE.

Let’s take a look at this new perception and visualise changes for us and our business.

RE-think / RE-consider / RE-frame

Many people are struggling in these challenging times. I want to share some of the coping strategies I have developed for people to manage their inner and outer stress.

Tip #1 – ASK questions

Read for yourself about the Covid19 virus, while keeping your mental health intact.

• What is all this information flooding in about the virus?
• Does the data you are channelling feel right?
• Or do you sense something else?

Only stream updates which allow you to stay healthy and vital, instead of heading into stress and angst as many do.

ASK questions! Ask yourself:

• What kind of information do I need to stay healthy and vital, even with all this stress around the world?
• Which resources do I have inside me, which could help me get through this time of crisis?
• What missing knowledge should I search for to help me and others stay healthy AND vital
• How can I use this knowledge to help others stay healthy too?

Applying critical questioning helps us distinguish the constant flow of good from bad information and leads us to the positive side effects of a global crisis.

By trying to keep emotions out of the picture, you can make good choices and stay in better mental health, thereby helping others as well as yourself. Sometimes it is better to stop watching the news or reading newspapers and do something you love instead.

Tip #2 – Stay healthy by boosting your immune system

My healthy tip in this time of crisis is simple: boost your immune system with good food, exercise, AND mental health practices.

Your entire body reacts to bad news, to uncertainty, to bad news, and stressful thoughts. If we choose proper nutrition with organic (if possible), fresh vegetables, and fruit paired with no alcohol, but water or unsweetened tea – our immune system will be strong and have reduced reaction to any virus or bacteria.

Yes, many forget that as they are experiencing stress-related thoughts generated by bad news, fake news, and uncertainty about our very future and security. Our immune system is the one we should boost EXACTLY now.

We are all the same.

When we are stressed, we often reach for unhealthy, sweet, fatty “junk food,“ which we think will alleviate our stress and give us a feeling of “security.“ Do you know what I am talking about? ?

Here is my tip: just don’t buy unhealthy, sweet, fatty junk food, and then you can’t eat it!

Our bodies get more stressed due to unhealthy eating and give us an overload of sugar, which is counter-productive to boosting our immune system.

But what to eat?

Healthy and natural sweet “slow foods“ are

• Sweet carrots
• Dried fruits
• Apple with nuts
• Mixed nuts with banana

If you are still craving “something sweet“ to relieve your inner stress, I have another tip for you: do something different from the norm, go for a walk, do some gardening or painting, write a journal, or a gratitude book, etc. There are many ways to step away from stress.

Tip #3: Create a wonderful future for you and others for AFTER-covid19

Make a vision board of the bright future you would love to have AFTER the crisis. Vision boards help us to bring our deepest wishes, visions and dreams onto paper – with pictures, words, and feelings that form the pieces of your dreams.

Use whatever you want to create your vision board:

• Paper – as much as you want
• Crayons, watercolours, felt-tip pens
• Magazine pictures
• Something from nature
• Words, emotions, dreams and feelings

And just about anything else you can imagine.

There are no rules to what you can and cannot add to your vision board, so give yourself enough time to let your imagination and creativity run free. To prove my point, I have four vision boards, each one metre long ?

Tip #4: Plogging is a new form of exercise

When I do my daily walk with our dog, I pick up trash along the way. I call this plogging – dog+jogging+trash collecting.

What if we all started picking up litter in our neighbourhoods?

Firstly, that would help keep our surroundings clean secondly, we would benefit from being outside as well as the extra exercise of walking. If we did that alone, wouldn’t that help us all as well as nature as a whole?

Being in nature for at least 20 minutes per day boosts the immune system immensely, so you not only stay healthy, but you also help our environment.

Tip #5: Reflect on your core values – love from the inside out!

Use the time at home to reflect on your core values. We learn most of our core values during childhood, but that doesn’t mean they serve our best interests during adulthood.

Take some “time-out-of-the-daily-routine” and write down the values which you feel are most important. Perhaps these are caring, loving, supporting or giving. Exploring your values is not an exercise to be rushed, so take your time, as the quality is far better than quantity.

For every core value, write an “action point” that correlates with your vision.

Example:

Core Value: Caring for others.

Action: When cooking my partner’s favourite food, I am caring for him because I make him happy.

In times of crisis, it’s easy to forget what is truly important. When we know our core values and the actions needed to express them, we are focused on what matters, even when around us, there is chaos.

Loving begins inside us. If we remember that, our actions will be loving towards others as well, no matter what is going on around us.

My book tip: https://amzn.to/2xZZoFH

More resilience methods provided in our book series “first aid for the soul“: https://www.firstaidsoul.com

Please stay healthy. Stay happy. Stay vital.

Yours from Austria,

Bernadette.

PS: If you are interested in Covid19-mentoring and getting healthy tips for this challenging time, just send me an email for a Zoom meeting to@ brucknercb@gmx.at or book an appointment on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/insideoutcommunicationBB