Tapping Into Inner Power – The Real Meaning of Resourcefulness 🎙️

Welcome back, Funella, to our last chapter in resilience management, and we are going to talk about resourcefulness. So important, isn't it? So resourcefulness is the ultimate skill you could have even in the most challenging of the situations. It is the resourcefulness. And that can help us to deal effectively with a lot of challenges.

Yeah. And you're making me think about a little story you shared with me about the billionaire ash. I don't know if you could very quickly sum that up, but that said a lot to me.

Yeah, I remember sharing a story with you a long time back.

Yeah.

And that was about let me think, what was that? Yeah, I think it was about a patient I had who was a who was a police officer. This is around seven, eight years back. Yeah. And he came to me and he was feeling very exhausted, very tired. Yeah. we did all the blood investigations and all the tests. I also explored more about him.

Yeah.

And had a good family, had a wife, had two children. Yeah. He was feeling very sad and exhausted.

Yeah.

And exploring more when I asked him about how things are at work. So there was a bit of silence and I explored more and he said that he was feeling kind of bullied in his work environment. And I had this assumption that in the kind of police services I was a little surprised. So I said, Really? So he said, Yes, in the police department there can be a lot of there can be a lot of bullying. Okay. And exploring more, I realized that he was not sleeping well. He was and this was going on for more than six months now. Yeah. sleep was disturbed, it was now affecting his relationship with his spouse and his other colleagues. So he was diagnosed with depression and high levels of stress.

Yeah.

So started him on the management and also referred him to a psychotherapist. So a few months back he came back to me later and he was looking much better. And he said, you know, really the counseling sessions with the psychotherapist was going very well and we could see I could you could see hope in his eyes that things are getting better, he was feeling less tired, he was getting better sleep. Yeah, so quite a difference, quite a difference, quite a difference. Then I saw him again after nearly six months. He was a different man altogether. Really? And I was really very pleased for him.

Yeah.

And he said, you know what happened? That I raised a complaint against this senior official, and I have left that department and moved on to a different department completely, and I had the most remarkable journey with my with my psychotherapist. And he said that was that relies made me realize so much about my own self, and in particular, what my strengths were, what my resources were, what my connections were, who were the people who were helping me. And in particular, he mentioned the name of the movie, The Shoshank Redemption. He said that his psychotherapist had suggested that movie. Yeah. And when he said the name of the movie, The Shoshang Redemption, yeah, it struck a chord with me because I had seen that movie like almost two decades back. Yeah. And it was a remarkable movie of which kind of is such a is such a profound message in that movie that even in the worst time of despair, there is hope.

Yeah.

There is hope. And that's the illustration in this chapter. Yes. As you can see, this is a there is a there's there's a metaphorical tunnel there, and this person is has to go on the other side. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah.

In the tunnel, there is sludge, there are slippery slopes, there are electric wires. Yeah. And they're pretty awful. But this person has got the tools, he's got the torch, he's got the knife, he's got ropes. Yeah. And he's strategizing in his mind that how he has to get on the other side. Yeah. So he's connecting with his resources both inside him and the external resources. Yeah. So when this patient told me that this movie made a profound impact on him and how it made him connect with his most innermost resources, I was reminded by the about my most challenging situations. Like even in the movie, there's this person, the Andy Dufrine, who says there's something inside you which nobody can touch. Now that might be different from for different people. Yeah. For someone, it could be a higher spirituality, it could be a connection with their God, or it could be a connection with a higher force. But there is something divine, there is something profound, and if you connect with that resource, it can be incredibly empowering. This is what participation was talking about. This is what I when I reflected on the most challenging situations, I could think of those resources. So it's not the resources externally which might always be there. There's a very deep, profound inner well which we can tap into, which is the ultimate resource, which can be a remarkable source of strength. And it has it's different for different people, yeah. And it can be explored within the context of a coaching partnership, coaching relationship for that person. Yeah. But I think it can make you take very, very far.

So you can ask yourself the question what is there inside me that's essential that just contains all of the meaning that I can find in life or I want to see or that I could reach for.

Or you can just reflect that when there were challenging situations in your life, yeah, what were the things which help you come on the other side? I'm I'm sure nobody has come so far in their lives without having go without having gone through a handful of challenges.

You'd have to be very fortunate.

You have to be very, very fortunate. Yeah. Or the other way, because here we are here we are perceiving that those challenges, because Funella, challenges are what makes us grow.

Yeah. Yeah.

If people do not have challenges and they haven't developed their resilience skills, yeah, I can tell you they don't know what's coming around the corner.

Yeah.

And when they are faced with that kind of situation, they will find it very difficult to develop that muscle all of a sudden.

Yeah.

So it's again the thing about the perception, which is which is which is so c so much the key here.

Well, yeah, the story I was originally thinking of, I think you told me about a very, very astronomically wealthy man who died in a place of distress, really, because despite all of the wealth, all of the success that they'd had in business, they were sad and they recognized that in life they hadn't known what to do with that. They hadn't known how to meet that sadness, and they had turned to kind of dysfunctional coping mechanisms like alcohol, which had robbed them of physical health. And how however good their healthcare was, it really couldn't keep pace with that damage that was happening. And there's the external damage physically from the alcohol, but there's that internal damage, that lack of a sense of self or lack of something that has meaning. So you in material terms you could have huge access to resources, but really end up not feeling particularly fulfilled or end up in a place of sadness and distress. So it's about what's happening internally, internally as well.

Yep. Yeah, very, very correct. And in spite of having all the external resources and wealth, yeah, if we are not able to tap our innermost strengths, our potential, yeah, sometimes we might file find ourselves in that corner that we are still not able to thrive and in the game of life.

Yeah. And again, we're right back to everything else that we've been learning about self-management, about what we know about ourselves, our self-awareness or self-reflection, knowing who we are and understanding that. And that is a very powerful part of the journey with a coach or with a therapist, that you learn to know yourself with the support of another person who can reflect things back to you and help you to understand what you value and what your val what your values are.

Yeah, I would I would even say that your own values and your top strengths are one of your biggest inner resources.

Yeah.

If you are able to play to your strengths, but again, it will come back to having awareness of what your top strengths are.

Yeah.

And then are you able to use those strengths effectively to create a future that you want? So it's a very important piece of resilience that when you are in situations of challenges, that you are able to use all the resources you have got to be able to overcome these challenges.

Yeah, and maybe some of that is looking back at previous adverse circumstances and ways that you found to cope, strengths that you found within yourself.

Yes. Well, Funella, thank you so much for this inspiring discussion. Thank you, guys. On resilience management. I hope the viewers and listeners enjoyed this discussion and we will look forward to having you again in our next section on environmental management and with remarkable discussions on what we have created and how we can put all these pieces together to help make all the challenging situations and convert them into a comfortable jacuzzi. So, Funela, thank you very much for joining me with joining me today at Glasgow on the Transforming Stress with Dr Ash podcast, and I would look forward to welcoming you next time. Amazing. Thank you so much.

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