RIRO- Resiliency Promotion Workshop

RIRO-Travelling the "Road of Life" with Resilience.

As part of our school Professional Development this year we have been attending the RIRO workshops. It was in the hopes to help us get through serious challenges in our professional and social lives and to develop some good strategies.
We learnt about the how the brain reacts in stressful situations and particularly how children can respond in fight, flight or freeze due to the cortisol.
Resilience helps cope with stress, bounce back from trauma and reach out for new opportunities. People who are resilient are healthier, happier, live longer, more successful and are less likely to be depressed.
Through the workshop we discussed coping mechanisms and ways we can calm and de-stress.
In the moment strategies for me include, deep breaths, pausing, music, having a picture of a relaxing place to look at. Long-term strategies for me include, holidays, sleep, having a good support network, chocolate/wine, massages, trashy tv.
Through discussion we had to develop a plan. I am going to keep going to the gym, having "me" time, keep chatting with my colleague next door, prioritise and not always put work first. I am going to stay accountable by sharing my plan with Lisa, one of my best friends and teaching colleagues.

It is important to use our own strategies and to model behaviour for children to learn.
A great clip to teach self-regulation and self control is the Cookie Monster clip "Me wait".
A clip to teach Empathy to watch is... Brene Brown on Empathy.
The "Inside Out" movie is a great movie to get children talking about their feelings.

Under pressure and stress we can all jump to conclusions. This is automatic and based on past events. We need to pause and reflect before we react. The thoughts we have make us feel a certain way and then we react. This goes round and round. We need to stop and notice how we respond in stressful situations. A thought is just a thought,it can lead you up the garden path without having all of the facts. To help develop resilience it is important to try catch your thoughts as these can help or hinder your resilience.
It is easy to miss what you are not looking for. Sometimes your brain is so busy it makes shortcuts and your brain filters out information that doesnt align with your beliefs. Video- Awareness Test.
It is often that we focus on the bad behaviour and not the good. We see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear. We need to focus on getting out of the thinking habit traps.
To help build resilience in our children we need to keep to routines, use class strategies and give children choices. We can teach children resilience by using mindfulness , spending time in nature and in green spaces, see mistakes as ok, use humour and express gratitude. Ask yourself "What are you grateful for?"
I chose for myself to be in nature regularly, be grateful (incorporate into class), and be mindful and live in the moment.

The course was a great reminder to have a work-life balance. It is important to give yourself time to relax and de-stress. This makes us happier and also gives us a better quality of work. Being in teaching can be very stressful and to be able to de-stress having good coping mechanisms in place is vital.

RIRO notes

RIRO Certificate