Bouncing back
It’s common when we’re busy, overwhelmed or distracted to feel discouraged.
When we are discouraged we lose touch with our inner resourcefulness and lose motivation and enthusiasm. It will happen, we are human and it's ok temporarily to feel this way. This tool is designed to help you in coaching yourself back to balance when you want to bounce back.
Group Size: individual
Time frame: 10 - 60mins
Materials: Pen, notepad or device for capturing your thoughts.
Being discouraged is being in a space of feeling down, in a lower state of mind, without being clinically depressed. We are aware that depression can be incapacitating, and if you’re feeling depressed please reach out for support and/or consider contacting a mental health professional.
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Often we feel discouraged when something feels or looks beyond us, out of reach, not possible for us. In Our Community volunteering this can happen a lot, as we move through the various challenges and roadblocks that come up along the way. We discourage ourselves by predicting possible futures, imagining futures where we fail, where things go wrong. Often we don't realise we are doing this.
Start this exercise by pausing and listing areas in your community project where you’re feeling discouraged and notice where you might be creating negative futures with your imagination and gathering evidence that this will come to be.
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When we double check we give ourselves the opportunity to discover if our thinking is true. Consider the area of discouragement and note down your answers to the following questions:
What would be the impact of that happening?
How do I know that what I am thinking is going to happen?
What am I making it mean about me?
Have I created self imposed expectations or timelines?
How is that helpful?
Is that true?
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After completing step 2, think about what you want to create, what you want for your community.
Ask yourself “what do I really want to create?”
A connected community?
Reduce waste?
What else?
Now create an inspiring statement outlining what you are in the process of creating. Keep it short for easy recall.
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When we get underneath our stories we can come back to our deeper nature - the creativity and wellbeing that is part of who we are. One way to do this is by taking one small action step, even if you don’t feel like it right now. Being in action can take us out of our heads and back into a space of possibility.
What is one step you can take right now to create your desired future?
Created by Amity. Inspired by Jamie Smart.
For more tools and support with your volunteering work you can join the In Our Nature Learning Hub. The In Our Nature Learning Hub is an invitation to slow down, spend some time with yourself, and get a fresh perspective so that you can bring your best to your community and our planet. The Learning Hub is completely free for you to access at any point in your community (climate) volunteering journey and is open for everyone.
