Welcome back to our Nurturing Hope blog series, where we dive into each of the 7 steps of nurturing Hope, why it is important, and how it changes students’ lives. Today, we are going to dive into step 5: Problem Solving.
What is Problem Solving?
Once we’ve established Hope as a mindset, set goals, established pathways, and defined a student’s willpower, it’s important that we identify potential obstacles. During this part of Hope work, we focus on finding and creating solutions to complex issues the student may face. Students of various ages, grades, and backgrounds will have different problems with a range of complexity. Because of that, My Best Me focuses on understanding those problems from the student’s point of view and helps them engage with age-appropriate solutions.
Acknowledging Life Has Adversity
While My Best Me focuses on the positive of ‘making tomorrow better than today,’ it’s essential to recognize that life contains problems. As a trauma information curriculum, we understand most of the students going through My Best Me have experienced adversity, stress, and trauma in their lives. Hope Work helps students deal with this past adversity and presents Hope-centered problem solving for future challenges. By preparing them for these possible problems ahead, we provide the opportunity and guidance to overcome the issues they face with Hope. As they are given these tools, and repeatedly experience overcoming hardship with Hope, adversity itself becomes less daunting over time.
Personalized Solutions through Willpower
Not all problems accommodate the personalized focus we have in My Best Me. There may only be one or two ways to solve a particular problem that make personalized problem-solving strategies difficult. However, there are more ways to individualize the process for the student to help engage them and motivate them to face these things head-on.
In our most recent blog, we talked about Step 4: Willpower. Each student has their own sources of motivation for working toward making their tomorrow better than today. When working through a problem that is difficult or has limited solutions, it is important in Hope work to engage what motivates that student to press on and show them how they can use that to face their current problem.
More in the Series…
Join us next time to see how we bring all the previous steps together to create a Hope visual. The first four steps of this process help establish Hope and provide the student with hands-on successes to grow their hope. Be sure to read Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, and Step 4 to catch up!
Hope Rising SEL’s definition of Hope is making a difference in many schools and communities across the country.
If your school isn’t using My Best Me yet, we would love to help you bring Hope to your school. Our sales team is ready to answer your questions and demo My Best Me for you. Contact us to start spreading Hope in your school.