FORT RUCKER, Ala. (January 16, 2015) -- Army Community Service exists to support the Soldiers, families and community members of Fort Rucker, and one way it does so is by offering a better outlook on life through resilience training.
In the past, ACS held family resilience training quarterly as two-day sessions to help families be more resilient in tough times, but now it will offer monthly resilience workshops to better serve the community, said Ruth Gonzalez, relocation readiness program manager.
"The resilience training that we do is training for anyone who wishes to get the skills they need to make them able to face challenges, whatever they may be -- simple or extreme," said Gonzalez. "It gives them the skills to face those challenges that we all face challenges throughout their lives, be it of a positive or negative nature."
One way resiliency helps people get through those challenges is by focusing on the positive aspects of daily life, said the program manager.
"One of the skills that we work on is real-time resilience. If you begin doubting yourself and you have that inner voice saying that you're lousy or that you're really messed up, you can fight those thoughts with the skills that we give you," she said. "We help you see that those thoughts aren't true and we help you see a more positive way to look at something. We give you the skills to fight those negative thoughts and to not go down too deep into them -- those thoughts of self-doubt, whether professionally or at home, you can fight those."
Lots of times, people tend to focus on the negative aspects of their day, but if that habit can be reversed to focus on the good, then people tend to not notice the bad as much, said Gonzalez.
"We teach these skills that are really common, but people really don't think about it until their in training and see that they can think of something a different way," she said. "This training is focusing on skills that lots of people have and have heard of, but as life goes on and gets busy, and issues and challenges come up, they forget and lose their focus. We help them get that focus back."
With these year's mini workshops, Gonzalez said she hopes to help more people and see them more often to help them work on their situations.
During the mini workshops, the attendees will go to a two-hour training session, once a month, which gives them time to work on those skills before they come back to the next session, she said.
One thing that people do from session to session is to "hunt the good stuff," Gonzalez said. During the time between sessions, people must not only go over the skills that were discussed, but also hunt the good stuff throughout their day and keep a journal of at least one or two things that have gone well in their day.
"When they come back (the next month) they have a list of good things, things as simple as their spouse washing the dishes or the kids picked up after themselves," she said. "Rather than focusing on the negative, they get to see the positive things in their lives."
The first resilience training of the year will be held Jan. 27 from 9-11:30 a.m. at The Commons, Bldg. 8950, and will focus on goal setting, activating events through consequences and hunting the good stuff. To attend, people must sign up for the session by Jan 23.
"This type of training is necessary because there are just so many different stressors throughout the work day," said Gonzalez. "With civilians it could be about workloads or personnel cuts --having to do more with less. So how do you deal with that and still be positive?
"The military side has its own challenges," she continued. "Being a training installation, many students are focused on their training and studies, so that can put stress on families. What can you do to overcome that frustration? That's what resilience training is here to help with."
For more information or to sign up, call 255-3817.
Related Links:
USAACE and Fort Rucker on Twitter
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