How Practicing Gratitude Can Build Resilience

 How Practicing Gratitude Can Build Resilience

 

By Sadie Tollberg, Outreach Director  

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at VVSD, Los Angeles

 

Resiliency. The definition of resiliency is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness. That is something that was taught during my time in service, but I do not know if this word was ever used. 

 

In the military, you can feel like you are kicked over and over but it is not about getting kicked, it is about getting back up again and becoming stronger each time. I remember thinking that I was always given hard tasks and put in situations where I was scared, and I was not happy about it at the time. But those were some of my most character building and mentally and physically strengthening moments of my career. Gratitude came from really recognizing the small things and how important they are in the grand scheme of things. When I was deployed and there were days without water to shower, or air conditioning I found ways to be grateful for the things I did have. I took that and brough it home with me and teach it to my children.  I served for a total of nine years between active duty and reserves: deployed twice to Iraq with 27 months overseas. I turned 20, 21 and 23 years old while deployed. While other people were off at college, I was learning and getting my education in other ways in the military. 

 

After I left active duty, I did go to college and got my degree in nursing. I remember thinking that all my classmates were so much younger than me, not just by age but by maturity level because they had not experienced the same kind of responsibility and resiliency that I had with my time in the service. It was hard to relate to them because they did not know what it was like, for example, to sleep on concrete in Iraq. 

 

But, if anything, I was able to do one thing with my classmates – show them what resiliency looks like. It was not until I was about to graduate when I had a conversation with a few of my friends and they told me they were watching me and the way I handled things. When there was a hard day in clinicals or after a particularly hard test, I would be there to boost everyone back up. As my senior year approached, we found out my husband would be stationed 4 hours away for the remainder of my degree. I had to live a single mom life with our three-year-old. This built some serious resiliency and my classmates noticed. I was taken aback because during school, I tried not to bring up my military service. I considered myself a silent professional. 

 

In addition to resiliency, I was also told that I helped my friends practice gratitude for the little things. Whenever one of my friends had a difficult day, I was there to show them how to be grateful. Someone else was complaining about a minor inconvenience, so we talked about how lucky we are to have this minor inconvenience because some people do not even have access to the things that we do, like running water and a warm place to sleep at night. 

 

I went into nursing after the military because I love giving back to people and I love helping them. Now, I have gone in a different direction. I still help people, but this time by promoting mental health care and self-care as an Outreach Director with the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at VVSD, as part of Cohen Veterans Network, which provides high-quality, accessible, evidence-based care to veterans, service members and military families throughout the country.

 

Cohen Veterans Network caught my eye not only for the mission it serves, but also the population that is so near and dear to my heart. With my own health journey, and the obstacles I have faced, I am now able to help clear a way for the next person reaching out for help.

 

If you do not take care of yourself, you have nothing. And there is so much to be thankful for when it comes to our own bodies and our mind. So, take a minute today to practice gratitude and be proud of your resiliency, even if you are still working on it. The fact that you can recognize that you are resilient or want to be resilient is light years ahead of some who are still trying to figure this idea out. Sometimes you do not know what you do not know, so here is your friendly reminder to look inward, be proud of what you have accomplished and continue to shine for yourself first and foremost. 

 

As I reflect on Veterans Day this year, I cannot help but focus my attention on the gratitude I have for those I am surrounded with in my life. The support through not only my organization I work for, but also within the veteran community in southern California has made such an impact on me! I can feel some major impact coming up with the future here to help others build resiliency for themselves and practice gratitude in all areas of their lives. 

 

 

Sadie Tollberg is a U.S. Army veteran and a spouse to an active-duty U.S. Army soldier. She served nine years with two deployments to Iraq in active and reserve as a Chemical Operation Specialist. As the Outreach Director for the Cohen Clinic at VVSD, Los Angeles, Sadie says she gets to live out her passion daily by meeting new people, creating community through events and spreading awareness far and wide. When she is not working on something health related, Sadie loves to travel with her family and see different cultures and nature throughout the world. She loves being outdoors and under water! “I am grateful for every day I am on this earth,” she said.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stress and the ugly mark it leaves

How many times do you ask someone how they are doing and they tell you about everything and just hearing it sounds stressful. Have you been that person? It can feel like you are drowning and everything hurts. We live in a society where everywhere we turn there is some bad news or something scary that could happen to the economy. There is death and devastation all over and it can be enough to send anyone into a spiral of cortisol inducing panic. Well since we cannot get rid of a lot of this, let's talk about how we can manage it and find some good release techniques that will help along the way.  When we are stressed, we basically put ourselves into fight or flight. It can now be extended into fight, flight, flee or fawn. So whichever one you are you will have the same automatic response in the body which is really meant to save your life in imminent threat. Think of being chased by a wild animal. This is the most common analogy because its true survival needed. Your body will do th
Read more

10 Healthy Habits that take little effort to do

10 Healthy Habits that take little effort to do by Sadie Tollberg 1.) Make it a habit to only eat while sitting at a table. This is a mental trigger that can help you to know when its appropriate to eat and when it's not. Sometimes we have mindless snacking when we are places like our desk or car. This will help to retrain that habit.  2.) Drink a glass of water when you first wake up. If you struggle with water this will help greatly. It wakes up the digestive tract and will make all of your first food and drinks of the day go much smoother.  3.) Park your car towards the back of the parking lot. Give yourself a few extra steps in each day this way!  4.) Use smaller plate and bowls when you eat. It tricks your brain into thinking there is much more food than there is!  5.) Place your goals and dreams on sticky notes and place them around your home. In the bathroom or in the kitchen are great places to start. They can be inside cabinets or somewhere guests wont see them. But expert
Read more

Gut: Your Second Brain

Your Second Brain 🧠 You have a second brain and it lives where the sun don't shine! Let me paint a prettier picture for you. Imagine your digestive system (from your entrance to your exit) is a beautiful garden! There are gorgeous flowers, trees, bushes, chirping birds and lots of wildlife! You absolutely want to live here and enjoy all the lovely sights and sounds!!  Then one day a fire breaks out! It terrorizes part of your garden! Some of the birds left and others are scarred! How in the world do you rebuild this part! Just like one rotten apple can spread to others, slowly the garden begins to wilt and smell and there are all sorts of issues you cannot fix at once! This will take years to rebuild.  That is what happens to our guts and it sends direct signals to your brain -making it depressed, anxious, sad and other unease. It lowers the bodies immune system and cannot rid the toxins that come as we are exposed to viruses and bacteria. It can cause so many other long lasting i
Read more