How Do I Foster Resilience & Self- Compassion? Talk about times you have failed, and how you worked through those failures. Help your students
see how they can use mistakes and failures as learning opportunities for growth and resilience. • Use exams and other assignments as teaching tools, rather than the “end” of learning. For example, instead of handing out grades to students, go over the exam or assignment and discuss areas of common struggle so students can learn from them. • Consider allowing students to correct mistakes and/or redo assignments or assessments to demonstrate continued learning and mastery of course content. • Model how you practice compassion for yourself and others, for example sharing the strategies you use to show compassion towards yourself and colleagues (e.g. engaging with self-kindness as opposed to self-judgment). • Share common experiences with your students, for example if a student is struggling, share about a time when you had a similar experience and learned from it. • Be flexible, taking into consideration students’ lives outside of class and academics, including their families, children, jobs and internships, health, financial situation, other classes, etc. • Share ways that you practice self-care in your daily life, and have students regularly share how they practice it as well. Encourage practices in the classroom to practice self-care, 20 including allowing students to take care of their needs during class (e.g. drinking water, going to the restroom, taking regular breaks). • Remind students that they deserve to be here at ERAU. Students may be experiencing impostor syndrome and/or selfdoubt due to pressure from classes and competitive academic programs. Hearing this from a faculty member or instructor can help students remember that they do belong and are able to succeed. 10
Illustration: Jude Boudon
Resilience is the ability to recover from stress, despite challenging life events that would otherwise overwhelm one’s coping ability (Smith et al., 2008). More resilient students tend to have better mental health, wellness, and academic outcomes (Johnson, Taasoobshirazi, Kestler, & Cordova, 2015). Self- compassion is the practice of treating yourself as 19 you would a friend, by accepting your personal shortcomings, but also holding oneself accountable to grow and learn from failure (Neff, 2003). Research suggests that individuals who practice self-compassion may be better able to consider failure as a learning opportunity (Neff, Hsieh, & Dejitterat, 2005).
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