Resilience Skills Overview
Tracking
uses your senses to pay attention to thoughts, feelings, and sensations in your body. Use your sight, hearing, taste, smell, and sense of touch to notice what is going on in your body. You can use tracking to find out where you are in the resilient or “OK” zone.
Example:
Noticing the lights in the room and other things you can see.
Resourcing
is when you use a person, place, or thing that is calming or relaxing. It can be something you can feel or touch in person, or something that you think about or imagine.
Example:
Thinking about your favorite place to go on vacation.
Gesturing
is when you move your body in ways that changes the way you are thinking. You can use gestures to remind your brain of times when you felt calm and relaxed.
Example:
Slowly rubbing your hands together.
Grounding
is when you pay attention to where your body is touching solid surfaces and the support it gives. You pay attention to your body in the present moment.
Example:
Sitting in a chair and paying attention to where your legs and back are touching the chair.
Shift and Stay
is when you change what you are paying attention to, and keep it on something more pleasant or comfortable. You use the other skills to shift your attention to something “okay” or pleasant, and then stay with those thoughts.
Example:
You are in a noisy place and having a hard time paying attention so you use grounding to shift your attention from the loud noises to how your feet and legs feel while you stand tall.
Help Now!
is when you use different strategies to relax your body when it is too hard to think. There are many different strategies you can use as part of this skill.
Example:
Going for a walk, doing pushups against a wall or getting a cold drink of water.
This information was developed by the Autism Services, Education, Resources, and Training Collaborative (ASERT). For more information, please contact ASERT at 877-231-4244 or info@PAautism.org. ASERT is funded by the Bureau of Supports for Autism and Special Populations, PA Department of Human Services.