4 – Bounce Back

🎯 Today’s win:

Notice when life knocks you off balance.

📘 Learn the basics: 

Resilience begins with awareness. You can’t bounce back from what you don’t see.

Setbacks come in all sizes — from spilled coffee to harsh criticism — and naming them helps you stop running on autopilot.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

Write down one challenge you faced today and note:

1. What happened?
2. How you felt?
3. What you did next?

🌟 Benefits: 

Builds awareness of how you currently recover.

💡 Tip for beginners: 

Even small frustrations count.

🔎 Quick reflect: 

What was the smallest challenge today that still bothered you?

🎯 Today’s win:

Strengthen your belief that recovery is always possible.

📘 Learn the basics: 

Resilience doesn’t look the same for everyone. Some people draw strength from family, others from humor, faith, or persistence.

Looking at role models isn’t about copying their methods — it’s about proving to yourself that bouncing back is human and achievable. Their stories remind you that you, too, can find your own way back up.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

1. Think of two people you admire for their resilience (close or distant, real or fictional).
2. For each, jot down:
   • The challenge they faced
   • How they got through it (in broad strokes)?
   • What this shows you about the possibility of bouncing back?
3. Write one sentence for yourself: “Resilience is possible for me too, in my own way.”

🌟 Benefits: 

• Builds hope and self-belief
• Reduces the sense of being “the only one struggling”
• Motivates you to practice your own recovery

💡 Tip for beginners: 

Ordinary people often inspire more than famous ones.

🔎 Quick reflect: 

Whose example today gave you the most encouragement that you can also recover?

🎯 Today’s win:

Prove to yourself you can recover — even from small setbacks.

📘 Learn the basics: 

Yesterday you saw resilience in others. Today is about practicing it yourself.

Think of small setbacks as training weights: the more you bounce back from little things, the easier it becomes when bigger challenges arrive.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

1. Notice a minor frustration today (e.g., a delay, a spill, a slip of words).
2. Pause, take one slow breath, and say: “This isn’t the end. I can reset.”
3. Move on to your next action without replaying it.
4. At day’s end, journal one example:
   • What happened?
   • How you responded?
   • How quickly you refocused?

🌟 Benefits: 

• Shortens recovery time
• Builds confidence that you can bounce back
• Creates a habit of resetting quickly

💡 Tip for beginners: 

Even something tiny, like dropping your pen, counts as practice.

🔎 Quick reflect: 

What difference did it make when I bounced back quickly instead of dwelling on the setback?

🎯 Today’s win:

Change the story, change your recovery.

📘 Learn the basics:

Events don’t always break us — the meaning we attach to them does.

Resilience isn’t about pretending everything is fine (toxic positivity). It’s about finding a perspective that helps you recover instead of staying stuck.

Even a small reframe — from “This ruined everything” to “This slowed me down, but I learned patience” — can speed your bounce back.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

1. Recall one recent setback.
2. Write your “default story”
   • e.g., “I failed completely”
3. Write one “resilient story”
   • e.g., “I made a mistake, but I can grow from it”

🌟 Benefits: 

• Builds flexible thinking
• Lowers stress intensity
• Helps setbacks feel less permanent

💡 Tip for beginners: 

Don’t force positivity — aim for a perspective that feels just one step kinder.

🔎 Quick reflect: 

How did the reframe shift my feelings?

🎯 Today’s win:

Use your body to speed emotional recovery.

📘 Learn the basics:

Resilience isn’t only mental. Stress leaves traces in the body, and recovery is faster when you reset physically.

Movement, breath, and posture all signal safety to your nervous system, making it easier to bounce back emotionally too.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

Resilience Reset Circuit:

1. Stretch arms overhead, inhale deeply.
2. Exhale, shake out hands.
3. Roll shoulders 5 times.
4. Walk briskly for 1–2 minutes.

🌟 Benefits: 

• Discharges tension and stress
• Boosts recovery energy
• Anchors resilience in both body and mind

💡 Tip for beginners: 

If short on time, even a 2-minute reset works.

🔎 Quick reflect: 

What changed in my body after moving?

🎯 Today’s win:

Discover and invest in your personal sources of recovery.

📘 Learn the basics:

Every time you recover, it’s like making a deposit in your “resilience bank.”

The more you practice, the more reserves you have when life throws bigger challenges.

Just as role models show different ways of coping, your bank should reflect what restores you.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

1. List 5 activities that recharge you (e.g., music, journaling, a walk, calling a friend, reading).
2. Choose one and do it today for at least 10 minutes.

🌟 Benefits: 

• Builds energy reserves for tougher times
• Personalizes resilience — no one-size-fits-all
• Turns recovery into a daily habit

💡 Tip for beginners: 

Pick the easiest activity first — momentum matters more than perfection.

🔎 Quick reflect: 

Which activity gave me the biggest lift today?

🎯 Today’s win:

Create a personal blueprint for resilience.

📘 Learn the basics:

Resilience grows strongest when scattered tools become a clear system.

A Bounce Back Plan means you won’t need to improvise under stress — you’ll already know your path.

With a phrase, a couple of tools, and one support person, you leave this module with a ready system for recovery.

✏️ Simple exercise: 

1. Choose a personal reminder phrase (e.g., “Reset and rise”).
2. Pick two resilience tools from this week that worked best for you.
3. Write down one person you can reach out to for support.
4. Keep this plan somewhere visible (journal, phone, sticky note).

🌟 Benefits: 

• Gives you a ready-made action plan
• Reduces stress when setbacks hit
• Strengthens confidence in your own resilience

💡 Tip for beginners: 

Keep the plan short and simple — one glance should remind you what to do.

🛠️ Look at what you’ve built:

• This week you’ve noticed setbacks, built belief that recovery is possible, practiced bouncing back in small ways, reframed challenges, reset your body, and invested in your resilience bank.
• Now you’ve turned it into a plan you can trust.

🔎 Your final reflection:

• What part of my Bounce Back Plan will you use first the next time life knocks you down?

You’ve proven that setbacks don’t define you — it’s how you rise that matters. With your bounce back plan in place, you’re ready to channel that resilience into something bigger: clarifying what truly matters and living with intention in Module 5 – Purpose & Direction.