My Thoughts on Illuminate x Hiren

Hi everyone! My name is Jenny Ding and I am a second year student at Western University. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Hirenn’s resiliency workshop. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about resilience from the workshop.

What I learned about resilience from the workshop?

Hiren describes resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress…bouncing back from difficult experiences”. While I do understand the definition of resilience, I could not think of a time where I was being resilient. However, upon further reflection and after finishing the workshop, I realized that everyday I am being resilient in some way or another.

For instance, I am being resilient right now as I am experiencing a tremendous amount of stress from midterms but I am able to adapt from this difficult situation. For instance, I am being resilient by making a to-do list for what and how much I have to study each day prior to my midterms. In a way, I am adapting from this difficult experience and remaining resilient. I think it’s important for everyone to take a step back and realize that no matter how big or small the difficult experience may be, we can all learn to adapt and bounce back from it!

What I learned from Hiren?

Hiren provided numerous strategies to build resilience, such as, asking for help, practice mindfulness, serial mono-tasking, reframe unhelpful thinking and practice self compassion. One strategy that stood out to me is asking for help. I feel like growing up, I was often told to be independent and was often discouraged to ask for help when I needed it. However, during the workshop, Hiren stressed this strategy and was able to offer advice on how to ask for help. For instance, he talked about the ways you can approach someone when asking for assistance: “you can make it clear to someone right at the start by saying i just need someone to listen or I need some advice”. I feel like this advice was very helpful because oftentimes, I simply didn’t know how to ask or start the conversation to seek help. I feel like after this workshop, I would definitely be able to adopt some of the strategies and apply it in my own life moving forward.

Final Thoughts and Going Forward

In conclusion, the workshop was very informative and interactive. I learned a lot about what resilience truly means and some key strategies to building resilience. In the future, I hope to apply everything I have learned from this workshop and try to be more resilient when facing difficult situations.