With „Resilient into the new year“Lysan Escher and Marek Spitczok from Brisinski will open the SOCIUS labore series in 2022. Participants from Berlin, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dortmund and Hamburg will spend a carefully planned and varied evening together, sharing a common desire.„Bring on everything that strengthens!“.

Among other things, our breath can be invigorating and – „… breathing is always a good idea.“Compensatory or water breathing, for example, can have a centring, calming and refreshing effect. We breathe in and out evenly through the nose, counting to four each time and allowing the breath to flow deeper and deeper into the abdomen.

Breathing exercises such as these can also be used to impulse control contribute – one in seven resilience factors according to Reivich and Shatté (2003). Other factors that strengthen the „immune system of the soul“ (Levold 2014) are

• Goal orientation,
• Empathy in the sense of positive relationships,
• realistic optimism,
• the ability to analyse situations and learn from them (causal analysis) and
• Manage emotions and strengthen positive feelings, as well as
• Self-efficacy belief.

In the context of psychology, resilience stands for the personal resilience, that people can develop and build on. To do this, it helps to become aware of your own resources and activate them regularly. In particular, it is important to see and notice the little things. „Resilience is part of everyday life,“ say Lysan and Marek. In order to benefit from this in challenging situations, it helps to establish routines and repeat soothing actions and thoughts.

One exercise that is particularly suitable for everyday use is the calf pump, This helps improve blood circulation after sitting for a long time. To do this, stand up and rock back and forth on your toes and the balls of your feet, repeating several times.

The invitation to a guided session is somewhat more extensive and intensive. inner journey. It allows us to immerse ourselves in worlds of inspiration and emotion instead of just planning for the future in technical and organisational terms. With our eyes closed and sitting or lying comfortably, we allow ourselves to be guided by Marek's questions during a dream journey to images of the future. „What would you like to be able to remember from the future?“Unpleasant feelings and situations are also allowed to have their place. They can help you to imagine ways of dealing with them – and then to let them go again. Finally, we paint a picture of an aspect of the journey into the future that is important to us, so that cognition and emotion are even more strongly connected.

Getting along with other people networking and sharing wishes or plans, also contributes to resilience. And so, after a small group phase in which precisely this exchange takes place, we see many smiling faces. For the final round of experimentation, Lysan invites us to write down everything in just a few minutes that we value in our lives. gratitude feel. Here, too, it is about becoming aware of your own resources and sources of strength.

Filled with tips for small exercises, colourful (dream) travel experiences and pleasant exchanges, the first lab of the year ends with, among other things, the feeling of being touched and enchanted by the fact that even an online format can be so intimate.

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