#TRANSFORMATIONAL #RESILIENCE AND YOUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Posted on February 27, 2017

Tonight I had the privilege of presenting the concepts of #Transformational #Resilience to my  colleagues from  #ACSARegion17 Association of California School Administrators in Anaheim. Each time I have the opportunity to share my ideas, thoughts, concept, and perceptions on #resilience development I learn something new about myself, my thinking, my beliefs, and I try to share the ideas and concepts that are swirling around in my mind in a coherent manner so that those that have committed some time to come and hear me receive a benefit that they might not have otherwise have received.

The attendees tonight included teachers, site administrators, budding administrators, educators of all kinds, who at their hearts care about children. In my talks I often share a bit about myself, my early development, some of the trauma that affected me in my early development, and how the process evolved to allow me to face the many early adversities that I endured to become the educator that I am. I then go through a process that seeks to allow the participants to reflect on their personal development. I ask questions about their stories, their families, their teachers, their experience, as a way to assist them in connecting with some of their personal stories that are meaningful to them, and to some of the stories that they might have forgotten about themselves.

I think that for educators to advance their knowledge and understanding of #resilience for others they must first think about the ways in which they themselves have been resilient. Yes, sometimes I believe that people forget. They forget the adversities that they have endured. They forget the hardships that they have been through. They forget their personal development, and what has brought them to this moment, and I believe that as they remember they actually become more able to be able to #connet with their students, their teachers, their staffs, and those that they work with on a daily basis. The process is easy for some, and more difficult for others. I think it has to do with several factors. 

If we suppress some of the difficulties that we have endured as children it is more difficult to call those incidents to mind. If that trauma, adversity, or hardship was never really dealt with it might also be difficult to manage years later. This is absolutely normal as our brains seek to protect ourselves from these difficult times, and yet, if we don’t remember, I think that we might not be as attuned to ourselves as we need to be to be able to then consider how our children may be suffering in silence. Tonight a few folks assisted me in a simple rope trick to test their #resilience, and they struggled to be free. Like these simple ropes trauma ca bind children’s mins, and stifle their resilience. 

I believe that when we are better able to consider our personal development, when we are able to recognize what and how we have overcome our adversities, our personal #resilience becomes more real in our minds, and I believe we, as educators who care for children, are then in a better place to support these children. One day, I hope to show you the secret to the ropes, and ease your mind.

Each child, each moment, each opportunity, each #asset that we can impart to our children, each collaborative moment that we can build together – yes, it all matters! I believe that each one of the attendees tonight is a special individual. I believe that each person who attended tonight’s presentation is on a unique personal journey towards educating children, the adults in those children’s lives, and each other. I believe that you, if you have taken the time to read this blog post is also special and unique, and I hope that you consider just how special you are, and that you also consider how important it is for you to work to build environments where all of our children can grow in peace.  

Tonight I’ll close this blog with this quote: “Let the life we help our children live be the measure of our success.” I’ve said this many times, and tonight one of the attendees shared that this really impacted her thinking. I was humbled.  

In these times others will seek to tell us if we are effective or not, and yet, it is our hearts, our minds, our souls that will truly tell us if we are being effective in the work we do that seek sto engage others in building support for al of the children in our lives.

Dr. Rob Martinez, AKA @ResiliencyGuy is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, and co-moderates #Resiliencechat on Monday nights on #Twitter. He is passionate about building opportunities for children to develop #reilince skills, and is working on his book #TransformationalResilience.