The Resilience Cycle is a multi-step process that walks us through how the human brain confronts change and how we can respond to it.

The Resilience Cycle:

Change-Your brain sees the change in your life and interprets it.

Loss-Brain automatically goes to the bad; What losses do I have from this change?

Distrust-Brain “builds” a protective wall around yourself; Begin to distance yourself from others.

Discomfort-Uncomfortable with the changes in your life.

Choice-You have the choice to continue to continue down a path of negativity or diverge into an engagement.

Engagement-Look at the positives! Find ways to combat change in your life and things you can do with it.

Reunification-Comfortable with change. You now recognize the losses and understand what you have gained.

It is so important for not only students, but parents, administrators, and teachers to recognize why they and the people around them may be feeling the way they are. This cycle is a simple but effective way to do so.

Authored by Claire Cabral, and other members of the MCSS Student Focus Group