Tag: resilience

How effective are your conversations?

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, Nurse Leadership, Nurses, Online Training, Parenting, Resilience

How effective are your conversations? Or a more direct question would be…how often do you listen – really listen – to someone who is trying to convey their feelings to you? There are plenty of quotes about the subject such as “You aren’t learning when you are speaking” and “We have two ears and one mouth.  Use accordingly” and – this one is on the button! – “Most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand” One way to practise this is when you are thinking about your answer while someone is speaking, or even trying to interrupt someone, stop yourself.  Wait a minute.  Ask another question.  Wait until the other person has finished articulating their point. Also, listen with more than your ears. Listen with your eyes, your heart, and with your brain engaged and focused on them, not you. One of my favourite coaching models is […]

Let’s visit the zoo! (or are you already there?)

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, Nurse Leadership, Nurses, Online Training, Parenting, Resilience

If we visited the zoo today, went to the chimp enclosure and popped a balloon, what might happen? You can imagine the scene.  The noise.  The screeching.  Chimpanzees running around wildly.  Some inconsolable.  Youngsters huddling under the big arms of their parents.  Parents rushing to scoop up their youngsters and carry them away from danger. They would be fraught with worry.  Needing reassurance but unable to hear it. Sometimes this scene is borne out within our own minds when we feel threatened. Our mind screeching.  Irrational and excessive reactions.  Unable to reassure ourselves.  Panic. The way our minds and bodies react to stress triggers has been honed and developed over hundreds of thousands of years, but our response is often out of proportion to the level of the trigger in today’s world. So what can we do?  There are lots of ways to teach ourselves how to reassure the chimp […]

How to avoid being ‘hooked’

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, Nurse Leadership, Nurses, Online Training, Parenting, Resilience

Have you ever been ‘hooked’? Being ‘hooked’ is when you are listening to someone telling a story and something they say brings back a memory of your own.  You tune out of what they are saying because you are now watching the movie of that memory in your head. It reduces your ability to concentrate or focus on what they are saying.  You definitely will miss the subtle cues as they continue to speak – their tone, body language, facial expressions, choice of words. If your memory is negative it may cloud your judgment and even cause you to become defensive in your interaction with this person. Listening deeply is a skill most of us don’t use a lot because we don’t need to in day to day interactions.  But leaders, healthcare professionals and coaches (among others) need to develop this skill and use it regularly in the course of […]

The peace you seek is within you already

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, exams, Nurse Leadership, Online Training, Parenting, Resilience

Silence isn’t an absence of noise. It’s a quality of mind.   If you long for the peaceful vibe of this picture just look inside yourself. Mindfulness is the best way to do that, so download an app or go to a mindfulness practitioner. It has been proven to have really positive benefits on mental health and stress management.   No time? Sit now, for 60 seconds and let your mind wander freely. No judgement, just let it go where it wants to. Gently listen to the sounds around you. Notice what’s happening in your body; your core, your heart, limbs, muscles, your face, your lungs.   Just notice, that’s all you need to do.  For 60 seconds.  That’s all. Refresh, recover, reboot. Best wishes, Lisa.   #Coaching #Mindfulness #StressManagement #Resilience

Do you take work home with you?

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, Nurse Leadership, Nurses, Online Training, Resilience

One of the most common causes of stress, that my clients often speak about, is bringing work home with them.  When you carry a lot of responsibility, for example if you are responsible for vulnerable people like children or patients, or when you feel the weight of responsibility for your staff, worried about making sure you make enough money to pay them, it’s very difficult to park that at 5 o’clock. Here are five things to do when you find you can’t leave work behind and the stress is starting to take its toll on your mental or physical health. Be in the moment while doing each task at work. By this I mean really focus on what you’re doing, not on the 10 other things you need to do. Easier said than done I know but if you can it will help your brain to park it once you’re […]

How deep is your Well?

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Nurse Leadership, Nurses, Online Training, Parenting, Resilience

When we wonder how we can build our resilience, it can be useful to think of resilience as a well. When the going gets tough you tap into your ‘Well of Resilience‘. If your well is deep and full – if you have effectively maintained it through focused action and attention – you will quickly return to a sense of calm and clarity. If you haven’t been refilling your well when resources were plentiful, it will quickly run dry – resulting in burnout. When your ‘Well of Resilience’ is deep and replenished, you will be supported by: A sense of calm Clarity and very clear focus on what’s important. Hope for the future Confidence and fulfilment. What happens when your ‘Well of Resilience’ is depleted? Fear Reactivity – you react to external triggers rather than responding in a measured way Impatience Negativity and resentment Overwhelm and exhaustion Anxiety or depression Disengagement What […]

When you feel least resilient, is actually when you are most…

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Clinical Leadership, Coaching, Online Training, Parenting, Resilience

This is the final week of this themed series looking at resilient role models and today I’m going to suggest something a little radical. I’d like you to view yourself as your own resilient role model. We often think that others are more resilient than we are.  We look at them in awe and think “How do they keep going?”, “I could never do that”. I would like to challenge those thoughts. If you are a parent who found hidden depths of energy during period of exhaustion (night-time feeding, teething, tantrums, illness, unexpected trips to A&E) – you are resilient. If you are a carer who yearns for a break, but who keeps going nevertheless, you are resilient. If you have had to fight for the basic rights of someone you love (education, special needs assistance, psychological assessment, home care, palliative care, access to services, etc), you are resilient. If you […]

Confidence Inside and Out – Workshop for Teams and Groups

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Coaching, Resilience, Workshop

Are you a HR Director or Manager who wants to offer your team a workshop which combines feeling good on the inside with looking good on the outside? In the first workshop of its kind in Ireland, Lisa Nolan, Resilience and Leadership Coach and Maria Macklin, Image Consultant have collaborated to explore the importance of knowing how to align inner and outer confidence. From Lisa your teams will learn the importance of being able to access their best selves every day. They will discover that harnessing resilience will allow them to thrive rather than just survive. Being able to practice and understand how to use their leadership skills when they need them is key to unlocking their potential. From Maria, your teams will see the fundamental role their appearance plays in their relationship to themselves, how others relate to them and the results they achieve.  Being visibly consistent and authentic […]

Resilience Role Models (3)

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Online Training, Resilience

Resilience Tip of the Month here! – What to do when you go blind in space… In April 2001, Commander Chris Hadfield suited up and went outside the International Space Station with a colleague to do some work. A few minutes later, the oil and soap mixture that was used to keep his visor clean got into his eye.  It stung his eye very badly and his eye teared up.  In zero gravity tears don’t fall out of the eye – they remain on the surface of the eye, effectively creating a pool of water between the eyelids.  The more his eye got irritated the more tears it produced.  Surface tension dragged then dragged that pool of tears, oil and soap across the bridge of his nose and into the other eye. He was effectively blinded, out in space, holding on with one hand to a Space Station that’s travelling […]

Resilience Role Models (2)

Posted LisaPosted in Awakening, Business Coaching, Coaching, Online Training, Resilience

What makes resilient people resilient? This week we continue our focus on resilient role models – people in the public eye who are recognised as having real determination and grit in the face of adversity. Helen Keller Most who have both sight and hearing would say it would be extremely difficult to manage without either sense, but almost impossible to have a life without both. Yet Helen Keller didn’t just manage, she thrived, lived a full life and even wrote and inspired others who are more fortunate than her.  She achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree.  She published 12 books and founded Helen Keller International to help reduce caused of blindness.  She was aware though, that her story sometimes facilitated a belief that people with disabilities could and should strive to exceed expectations, so she worked hard to address that. In her first every public speech in February 1913 she […]