Skill Building Exercises
Hope Building
1. Think of your short term or long terms goals. Create a visual representation of the goals and make them constant reminders of what you want to achieve.
2. Write a list of all the possible strategies that can be used to advance toward goal achievement. Think of these strategies as the pathways toward the goal.
3. Write a list of your fears and concerns regarding the goals. Identify and challenge negative thoughts that are irrational and unproductive.
4. Identify potential barriers and develop problem-solving strategies to overcome them or switch pathways. Allow for flexibility.
5. Take small action steps along the pathway and reflect on mental energy and motivation directed at and sustained toward the goal. Set S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound) goals.
6. Acknowledge and celebrate progress. Reflect on how small accomplishments are cumulative. Expect and accept setbacks as part of the journey.
7. Write daily personal affirmations to internalize progress and perseverance in goal pursuit.
Resilience Building
1. Re-create the narrative and tell yourself a healthier version of the story that has been redundant and unproductive to this point. Think of a story in your life that you think about or repeat often that causes anxiety or pain. Re-write a new version of this story that has a more positive interpretation and recognize what this change feels like.
2. Identify the positive in a negative situation. Choose to see what good can come from a bad situation and use strengths to face challenges. Foster optimism by holding a positive view of the future by finding the silver lining. Use a bad situation/experience to help yourself or others as tragedy and despair can create opportunity for growth and transformation. Think about a difficult event in your life and consider if this story can be used to help others. Identify three positive things about the event.
3. Become aware of your purpose and meaning in your environment. Find meaning in life’s experiences in general but during challenges specifically. Write a list of what gives your life meaning and what your purpose is now and what you want it to be in the future.
Questions to help reflect on purpose:
Why do you get up in the morning? When are you most alive? What does being successful mean to you? How can you apply your strengths to a pursuit that you care about and can help others? What can you do to make a difference in one person’s life today? Do you live purposefully? What advice would you give your younger self?
4. Identify your strengths and reflect on how they can be used to help yourself and others.
5. Perform acts of kindness, volunteering, mentoring or express gratitude towards others. Pick one person a day to show extra kindness and display random acts of kindness to strangers and people in your life. Make a daily gratitude list and write a letter of gratitude to some you care about.
6. Identify positive emotions that you experienced during the day. Reflect on these emotions and write down 3 good things that happened today. Describe how you felt during these good things and what was the best thing about the experiences.
7. Reflect on your use of self-criticism while also t practicing self-compassion: think of a difficult circumstance in your life and write down the details of the situation. Next, write down what you would tell a friend who is in that situation. Describe the tone you would use and the actions you would take.
8. Explore your personal values and affirmations. Values are ways of living that can be realized from moment to moment. They provide a reason to persevere in times of despair. Create a values reminder in the form of artistic expression (i.e. drawing, photographs, collage etc.).