Szókincs fejlesztés: How to Become More Resilient
One day, Dr. Sonia Coelho Mosch, a neuropsychologist met with a clinic patient who more than a year before had taken a hit to the head from a relatively flexible object. The patient said he was no longer able to work.
Later that same day, she met with a player for the Minnesota Wild who had taken a puck to the head. Dr. Mosch evaluates all the players at the beginning of each season and again any time there is a question of whether and when they are ready to return to the ice. Despite a more recent and serious injury, the hockey player was determined to do whatever was necessary to return to the rink.
It was a puzzle. National Hockey League players are in exceptional physical condition, but neither their genes nor their training make their skulls thicker. Dr. Mosch wondered why she was seeing “very different responses to what theoretically was a similar mechanism of injury. The regular employee was a year-and-a-half or two years after the hit and, quote, ‘never the same.’ The professional hockey player was progressing as we expect based on what we know about recovery and within several days was feeling great and ready to go.”
She started making a list of how NHL players think differently. “In the broadest terms, when we think about human behavior, there are adverse events and positive events,” she said. “ An injury on the ice is an adverse event just like your kid coming down with a chronic illness. Your body and your mind can choose to respond to the event with ‘I’m really screwed’ or you can change what you are saying to yourself and expect that you are going to overcome it.”
Dr. Mosch sat down, and shared the list of how hockey players think differently of adverse events.
- NHL players take personal responsibility
“The guys who recover quickest take responsibility for their own state,” said Dr. Mosch. One of their first questions after an injury is, “What do I have to do?” she said. “They are able to take direction very well, but they say, ‘No one else is responsible for implementing this but me.’
- They focus on the intermediate goals that get them back on the ice
“They stay pretty clear-headed about only thinking about what’s next: ‘If I pass this concussion test, then I need to work on getting my endurance back up,’” she said. “They look at each concrete step they need to take and say, ‘What do I need to do to tackle that?’ They stay in the here-and-now. They take it one step at a time.”
- They pay attention to progress, not agonizing over small symptoms
Dr. Mosch’s non-hockey-playing patients often arrive having looked up their symptoms online. The hockey players are not obsessed with their injuries. “They just don’t put mental attention on that. They put attention on, ‘I feel better than I felt yesterday.’”
- Hockey players expect positive outcomes
” An optimistic view becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy when others react to that optimism. “When people have a positive attitude about what’s going on around them, they bring more of that in.”
- They work excruciatingly hard
Dr. Mosch said she is constantly impressed by how hard Wild players train. “The disability-seeking dude is not starting every morning with egg whites followed by 45 minutes of cardio followed by jumping over weighted bags followed by skating.” She hastens to add she does not expect that people who are not professional hockey players would follow the same routine, but that does not mean they can ignore diet, exercise, and working hard to reach their goals “If you want something – health, recovery, success, goals, a contract, more ice time, a promotion at work, whatever it is – you have to be relentless. There is no way to work around a poor work ethic. ”
- Hockey players turn adversity into growth.
For most NHL players, “There’s got to be a takeaway from every struggle,” said the neuropsychologist. “The most gritty players figure out the takeaways and string them together to make an informal network of beliefs and knowledge that guide their ability to manage future setbacks.”
Most people, Dr. Mosch believes, don’t realize the degree to which they can direct their thinking during times when they need to be resilient. “I don’t think people give enough attention to what they are saying to themselves. It’s so automatic,” she said.
The Wild players she sees, however, “tend to be very self-aware dudes.” When working through a setback, “they are very aware of themselves. They know what their bodies need, what their spirit needs, what their social needs are.”
personal responsibility – személyes felelősség
patient – páciens
puck – korong
to evaluate – értékel
rink – jégkorong pálya
exceptional physical condition – kivételes fizikai állapot
thick – vastag
theoretically – elméletileg
to quote – hivatkozik
broadest terms – legtágabb értelemben
adverse events – hátrányos
‘I’m really screwed’ – “El vagyok rontva”
to overcome – felülkerekedni
to implement – megvalósít
intermediate – közbenső
concussion – agyrázkódás
endurance – állóképesség
to agonize – gyötrődik
symptoms – tünetek
to be obsessed with something – valaminek a megszállottja lenni
outcomes – kimenetelek
self-fulfilling prophesy – önbeteljesítő jóslat
excruciatingly – kínzóan
disability-seeking – tehetetlenségbe merülő
to hasten – igyekszik
relentless – hajthatatlan
takeaway – tanulság
gritty – karakán
setback – kedvezőtlen fordulat
resilient – öngyógyító
self-aware – öntudatos
Birinyi Balázs