Here’s one of Desmond Tutu’s stories. A man moves to a new town and decides to create a habit of going for a walk each morning. The route he takes runs beside a fast-flowing river which makes the walk all the more enjoyable.
He keeps up his morning walks along the same route for a few weeks, until one morning as he’s walking, he hears a yell from the river. He runs to the riverbank to find a man fallen in the water and trying to get out.
He helps him out, checks he’s okay, walks him to the doctor, and then goes about his day.
A couple of days later, on his morning walk, the man hears a commotion coming from the riverbank. He wanders over to find a woman trying to help another man out of the water. Once this man is out, the woman accompanies him to the doctor to get checked out.
The very next day, on his morning walk, the same situation occurs; another person has fallen into the river and needs assistance getting out. And this keeps on happening for a few weeks.
Finally, the man thinks to himself that maybe, just maybe, ‘There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.’
Tutu’s story epitomises the Art of Brilliance approach to wellbeing.
The NHS is fighting tooth and nail to pull individuals out of the fast-flowing river of mental illness, and it’s fantastic we have such a large service committed to doing that.
However, what we should also be doing, is heading upstream to identify and fix the very thing that causes us to fall in in the first place.
We can do that with ourselves by taking a proactive approach towards our thoughts and feelings every day – acting BEFORE we’re annoyed, frustrated, angry or disappointed.
EVERYTHING changes when you begin to be proactive rather than reactive!
Pupils, students, staff… our approach fits everyone. It’s about embedding a set of simple strategies that will enable you to be your own first responder.