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A Potent Question to Help Build Resilience and Improve Mental Health
I watched a Ted Talk recently where Dr. Lucy Hone shared how she tragically lost her child — arguably the most devastating loss any parent could have to endure and undoubtedly their greatest nightmare.
Dr. Hone spoke about how she and her husband found themselves on the receiving end of “expert” advice that wasn’t in the least bit helpful — prime candidates for family estrangement, likely to get divorced, and at high risk for mental illness.
Only days after their beloved daughter died tragically, this is how experts were priming her and her husband for the next five years of their lives. Pretty cruel, I think you’ll agree? But Dr. Hone was a resilience expert, and with two other kids to care for, she wasn’t going down like that.
Unsurprisingly, her talk was on resilience. As she shared secrets of resilient people, one stood out to me as “genius.” It was one question — a potent and simple question I believe could benefit all.
“Is what I’m doing helping or harming me?”
Many of our choices harm us — both consciously and unconsciously, which we make day in and day out.
Maybe you can’t stand your job because the work sucks, or your boss is an asshole? As a result, you become more anxious and stressed as the…
