It's a term used equally for children with special needs and
for adults grappling with life challenges. Self-efficacy is defined as “our
confidence to perform well in a particular part of our life,” according to
Melissa Hladek, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing who
studies stress and resilience.
Whether you're working at home while your children learn
online or dealing with the loss of a job or simply confronting the tension of
shopping in a store full of masked people, you have the ability to cope with
the difficulties the pandemic throws at you. Hladek suggests the following ways
to increase your sense of self-efficacy during this period of upheaval.
Personal Mastery. Recall past experiences that
required you to grapple with difficult situations. Although you probably have
not lived through a pandemic before, you can apply lessons from other
experiences to this situation. Remember that you have mastery and mobilize it
for the present.
Positive Modeling. We can learn from other people as
we observe them dealing with the pandemic in their own ways. Go to your network
of friends and acquaintances and ask for advice, particularly from those who
are dealing with similar problems. They may have stories to relate, or they can
point you to resources.
Coaching. Although the whole world seems to have
changed, the pandemic involves specific challenges that people have dealt with
before: social isolation, financial difficulties, health anxieties. Break your
situation down into its component parts and seek out people who specialize in
those issues. Don't forget that your past experiences have given you expertise
in some of these areas, and you can help others. The more we come together and
support each other, the more confident we will feel.
Listening to your body. Pleasurable or painful
sensations in your body often come from emotions that you can access by paying
attention to the physical feelings. Pause to focus on the sensations and ask
your body what it's trying to tell you. Sometimes making the connection between
physical and emotional pain will help you release the sensations and move on.
Tools for making these connections include meditation or prayer, sleep, tears,
journaling, talking, and exercise. If pain persists, don't be afraid to seek
professional help.
We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, so
self-efficacy will look different for each person. By sharing our personal
mastery, we can support each other and get through these difficult times.
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