Resilience Wheel

Toolkit
YOUR LIFE-CHANGING GUIDE TO
OVERCOME STRESS, BOOST WELLBEING,
AND FLOURISH!

OLGA PHOENIX
 HI NEW FRIEND!

Welcome to the Resilience Wheel Toolkit! I’m so glad that you are here!
My name is Olga Phoenix and I’m the creator of the Resilience Wheel. In April
2020 I released this new wellbeing tool along with its companions, the Resil-
ience Wheel Assessment and Create Your Own Resilience Wheel, in response
to unprecedented physical and mental health challenges posed by a world-
wide pandemic.

For the past 15 years I’ve been fortunate enough to serve as a resilience and
wellbeing expert, speaker, and strategist- empowering individuals and orga-
nizations all over the world to grow and thrive. The Resilience Wheel and its
companions were created to do just that- to help guide you to a full, nurtured,
intentional, balanced, resilient, and flourishing life.

Whether you are here to gain the strategies necessary to overcome obstacles
to your own wellbeing and happiness or to inspire others to make a positive
life transformation and create lasting change- the Resilience Wheel Toolkit is
designed to help you or your clients restore, increase, and sustain a sense of
resilience and wellbeing during these challenging times.

The multitude of tools, assessments, and strategies you’ll find here will serve as
a powerful kickstart for you or your clients’ personalized, sustainable resilience
and wellbeing journey and a healthy, intentional, and meaningful life! Together,
we can close the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Now,
it’s your time to flourish!

In deepest gratitude for all you are and all you do,

Olga Phoenix, MPA, MA

Website www.olgaphoenix.com
Courses academy.olgaphoenix.com
Social Media @theolgaphoenix

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 WHY IS
RESILIENCE
IMPORTANT?

In the past few decades, the concepts of resilience and wellbeing were studied very extensively
and were directly linked as vital and necessary parts of one another. The state of wellbeing- an
experience of good physical and mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning and
purpose, and improved ability to manage stress- was directly connected to the concept of resil-
ience. People who fostered resilience on a regular basis were feeling much less stressed, more
happy, healthy, socially connected, and purposeful than those who didn’t. Thus, we discovered
that engaging in ongoing resilience building practices offered us not only a priceless opportu-
nity to handle stress and adversity more effectively, but with commitment and practice, could
actually afford us a sustainable state of wellbeing, happiness, and overall life satisfaction despite
of what was happening in the world or our lives! How exciting and hopeful is this?

WHAT IS
RESILIENCE?
American Psychological Association defines re-
silience as the ability of an individual to maintain a
positive attitude, physical and emotional wellbeing
in the face of significant adversity. This is the most
commonly used definition of resilience. Sometimes,
however, it’s understood as a biological, inherent abil-
ity of a person to withstand hardships in life, as in-
some people have it, and some don’t. This could not
be farther from the truth!

My favorite definition of resilience is by the Re-

silience Institute-learned ability to recognize risk,
bounce skillfully, and secure robust physical,
emotional and mental wellbeing. This definition
includes the very important and very hopeful
notion that resilience can be learned by anyone
and can result in a strong state of wellbeing.

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 SO HOW
DO WE BUILD
RESILIENCE?
I like to think of resilience as an ongoing process of using a specific set
of personalized resilience building tools consistently which result in a
sustainable state of wellbeing. Who doesn’t want to experience good
physical and mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning
and purpose, and improved ability to manage stress on a regular ba-
sis? And now that we know that building our resilience toolkit will actu-
ally get us there, we’ll be more likely to dedicate some time to exploring
various resilience fostering strategies and discovering what works for
us. Exciting, right?

I studied resilience for some time now, and what I discovered is that
at its foundation, resilience building has 3 core components: self-care,
nurturing relationships, and living with purpose and meaning.

How does it look in real life? Here are a few examples of resilience
building strategies in each of these 3 core components:

1. SELF-CARE:
We can nourish our bodies with care, prac-
tice media detox, create a gratitude routine.

2. RELATIONSHIPS:
We can improve our relationship with self
by noticing our inner dialogue or starting
therapy, we can learn our and loved ones’
communication styles and needs, we can
search and find our tribe or support group.

3. LIVING WITH PURPOSE:

We can help others, be intentional with
our lives, we can actively pursue our goals,
learn, self-discover, and grow.

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 HOW DO WE DISCOVER RESILIENCE
STRATEGIES THAT WORK FOR US?
I have a great solution for you! In April 2020, in response to un-
precedented physical and mental health challenges posed by the
worldwide pandemic, I created and released a brand-new wellbe-
ing tool called the Resilience Wheel. The Resilience Wheel, which
features 3 core components of resilience building- sustainable
self-care, nurturing relationships, and living with purpose, is de-
signed to help you restore, increase, and sustain your sense of
resilience and wellbeing during these challenging times. The Re-
silience Wheel companions are the Resilience Wheel Assessment
and Create Your Own Resilience Wheel tools.
The following pages will serve as a powerful beginning
to your sustainable, individualized resilience and
wellbeing journey and thriving, purposeful,
and flourishing life! Let’s begin!

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 The Resilience Wheel. Copyright @2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. Unlicensed reproduction
and distribution is prohibited. Copyright licenses are available for purchase at www.olgaphoenix.com.
6 R e s i l i e n ce Wh e el Toolkit
Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 I wanted to create an engaging and simple tool to help people visu-
alize 3 core components of resilience in action. The Resilience Wheel
consists of 3 core components: self-care, relationship, and life pur-
pose. Each component is further broken down into 3 separate focus
area categories. In total, we have 9 focus areas representing parts of
our lives which we can examine:

1. Self-Care component is broken down into:

• self –care for body
• self-care for the mind
• self-care for the spirit

2. Relationships component is further broken

down into:
• relationship with self
• relationships with loved ones
• relationship with community

3. Life purpose component is further broken

down into:
• our values
• our goals
• our passions

Each of the 3 core components are very broad topics- and the cate-
gories are there to help narrow down your focus areas, as well as to
identify things you are already doing tremendously well, things that are
challenging, and things you’d like to be doing more of.

For example, you might already be engaged in volunteering at local pet

shelter or reading books to kids at your library. The community category
of your relationship component has been met very well. Now we can fo-
cus on another category, for example, your relationship with your loved
ones and yourself. If you feel like there is a piece missing there, it would
be opportunity for you to foster resilience in these areas of your life.

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 To help you do this – each of the 9 categories contains 4 different re-
silience and wellbeing building strategies on how you could go about
nurturing that part of your life.

For example, if you ‘d like to improve your relationship with yourself-here

are 4 strategies you could try out:

• Notice Your Inner Dialogue

• Connect to Your Body
• Pursue Personal Healing
• Practice Loving Yourself

or to improve your relationships with loved one you could:

• Commit to Quality Time

• Improve Interpersonal Skills
• Learn to Set Boundaries
• Say “I Love You” More

The goal here is to show ourselves that building resilience and thus well-
being is easier than it sounds and that there are numerous options and
opportunities for us to do so. The Resilience Wheel also gently encour-
ages us to take stock and determine which areas of the wheel and our
lives have the most priority for us, and help us make educated inten-
tional choices on which specific strategies should go on our personal
sustainable and well-rounded resilience and wellbeing plan.

Next, I’d like to introduce you to the Resilience Wheel Assessment tool.

8 R e s i l i e n ce Wh e el Toolkit
Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 The Resilience Wheel. Copyright @2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. Unlicensed reproduction
and distribution is prohibited. Copyright licenses are available for purchase at www.olgaphoenix.com.
9 R e s i l i e n ce Wh e el Toolkit
Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 To help us go even further into our self-discovery activity, we can
utilize the Resilience Wheel Assessment tool. Here we can rate our-
selves from 0-10 in each of the 9 categories. With a score of 10
signifying that we are spending a lot of time and energy in this part
of our lives, that we are completely satisfied, and that the strategies
we are utilizing here have done wonders for us.

The score of 0, on the other hand, shows us that we haven’t spent

a lot of energy in this area of our life. And sometimes it’s a great
thing because it’s intentional, exactly how we want it to be, and our
personal choice. And sometimes it might be something to think
about and maybe decide to make a conscious effort to engage in
this category more often because doing so would greatly improve
the quality of our life.

Now is a wonderful opportunity to invest in ourselves, to spend

some time filling out the Resilience Wheel Assessment, and to dis-
cover what works, what’s challenging, what’s a priority, what could
be put on the back burner, and what specific areas of our lives are
calling for our nourishment, love, and care. Knowing this informa-
tion would make choosing and fostering our resilience and wellbe-
ing building strategies so much easier and within reach.

Next, let’s move to interpreting the results of our Resilience Wheel

assessment

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 The Resilience Wheel. Copyright @2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. Unlicensed reproduction
and distribution is prohibited. Copyright licenses are available for purchase at www.olgaphoenix.com.
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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 Whatever the result - we are now one step closer to our personalized,
sustainable resilience and wellbeing building plan- thus one step closer
to a healthier, happier, more purposeful life. And it’s a fantastic thing!
Let’s pat ourselves on the back for completing this undertaking - we
know it wasn’t easy. Now let’s mindfully and non-judgmentally interpret
our scores.

If our scores range from 8 to 10 in any of these categories, we are

doing great! Chances are we are very satisfied in these areas of our
lives. We are obviously doing something right and it’s working for us
very well. The important thing is to reflect on which specific strategies
have gotten us here and to continue doing what we are doing to ensure
continuous life satisfaction in this area.

If our scores range from 5 to 7 in any of these categories, we are

reasonably satisfied in these areas but there is room and possibly
a desire for improvement. What an amazing opportunity to explore
strategies and ideas that will help us move up the scales!

If our scores range from 0 to 4 in any of these categories, these areas

of our lives might be challenging for us and we may want to explore
various ways to improve our life satisfaction here. Again, this is an
excellent and exciting chance for self-exploration, self-discovery, self -
improvement, and growth!

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 ASSESSMENT REFLECTION

We may want to reflect on why we scored the way we scored in all these categories to
help determine what areas, strategies, and tools are working for us and what areas may
require more of our time and energy moving forward. Let’s take some time to answer
the questions below.

CATEGORY SCORE (0-10) WHY DID I SCORE THIS WAY?

SELF-CARE/Body

SELF-CARE/Mind

SELF-CARE/Spirit

RELATIONSHIPS/Self

RELATIONSHIPS/Loved Ones

RELATIONSHIPS/Community

LIFE PURPOSE/Values

LIFE PURPOSE/Goals

LIFE PURPOSE/Passions

Which categories or areas of my life do I have the most satisfaction in? Why? Is there a
common thread in regards to the time I spend there, activities or strategies I’m engag-
ing in, specific support systems I have?

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 Which categories or areas of my life do I have the most dissatisfaction in? Why? Is there
a common thread in regards to the time I spend there, activities or strategies I’m not
engaging in, specific support systems I’m lacking?

Which categories or areas of my life do I want to focus on to improve my life satisfaction

levels?

What specific resilience and wellbeing activities or strategies can I utilize to improve my
life satisfaction levels?

What specific resilience and wellbeing activities or strategies would I like to try or have
been thinking about trying in any of the 9 categories of the Resilience Wheel?

Let’s congratulate ourselves on taking time for us, and

thoughtfully answering these questions! We are now
equipped with the results of our hard work and self-explora-
tion! Now we’ll be able to create our own Resilience Wheel, full
of personalized strategies, tools, and activities that will work
specifically for us. Let’s transfer our self-discoveries into our
own, sustainable, and personalized Resilience Wheel!

14 R e s i l i e n ce Wh e el Toolkit
Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 The Resilience Wheel. Copyright @2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. Unlicensed reproduction
and distribution is prohibited. Copyright licenses are available for purchase at www.olgaphoenix.com.
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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 We have now created an educated, intentional, and precise snapshot
of our personal sustainable and well-rounded resilience and wellbeing
plan. It’s time to commit, put this wheel in motion, and start taking ac-
tions that will bring us a happy, healthy, and meaningful life we deserve!
What are 3 immediate actions we can take to help restore balance and
enhance the areas of our lives we feel need it the most? Let’s take some
time and write down our 3 immediate actions below. To help ourselves
with completing these actions, let’s make our actions SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound):

IMMEDIATE ACTION DESIRED RESULT COMPLETION DATE

Action 1

Action 2

Action 3

Now, let’s pause and admire all this tremendous amount of work and
self-discovery we’ve done! And all this fantastic progress we’ve made!
Congratulations on starting this amazing transformational journey to
health and wellness! I can’t wait to see what wondrous gifts, opportuni-
ties, discoveries, and positive changes your life has in store for you! Now
is your time to thrive!

Go forth, do incredible things, and flourish!

In deep gratitude,

OLGA PHOENIX

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 WHAT’S
NEXT?

Below you’ll find some additional resources available to you as well as answers to most often
asked questions. I encourage and invite you to email me at [email protected] with your
questions, comments, suggestions, and recommendations about this guide, the Resilience
Wheel tools, or anything else that came across your mind while reading this publication. I very
much look forward to hearing from you!

RESILIENCE WHEEL COPYRIGHT LICENSING

The Resilience Wheel is absolutely free for www.olgaphoenix.com/resiliencewheel.

personal use. Since the Resilience Wheel is With purchase, you’ll gain access to the
a copyrighted intellectual property, copyright highest quality non-watermarked Resilience
licensing is required to use it in any other way Wheel images in jpg and pdf, and copyright
but personal consumption. Trainers, speak- license to reproduce, print, and publish the
ers, coaches, mental health professionals, images in your personal or professional life.
online course creators, teachers, and mul- Copyright licenses are available for both indi-
titude of others worldwide are successfully vidual and agency-wide purchase. The possibil-
utilizing the Resilience Wheel in their work ities, transformation, professional and personal
with clients, students, in online courses, growth for you and your clients with licensed
presentations, trainings, curriculums, and Resilience Wheel tools are endless! For ques-
e-books. Please join our Worldwide Resilience tions, comments, recommendations-please
Wheel Tribe and purchase your own brand- email [email protected]. We are
new Resilience Wheel copyright license at looking forward to hearing from you!

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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]
 OLGA PHOENIX ONLINE ACADEMY
As my gift to you for downloading this guide I forms, and tools available to you online; and
would like to offer you a 25% OFF discount for ultimately, be prepared to successfully inte-
individual or agency-wide access on any one grate your newfound personalized sustain-
of our online academy courses with the cou- able resilience and wellbeing plan into your
pon code RWGUIDE. Certificates of comple- life.
tion are available to you to meet your training 8-hour online course “Strategic Resilience:
and professional development requirements. Your Agency’s Guide to Wellbeing and Vicar-
4-hour online course “Path to Wellbeing: ious Trauma Prevention”.
Bouncing Back with Resilience Wheel”. This course will guide you or your team
To further explore the Resilience Wheel and through individual personalized sustainable
practical exercises, tools, and strategies de- resilience plan building process with the Re-
signed to help you close the gap between silience Wheel; as well as introduce you to a
where you are and where you’d like to be, variety of evidence-based customizable pro-
please visit Olga Phoenix Online Academy gramming, evaluation, and implementation
(link academy.olgaphoenix.com) where, strategies and tools to foster vicarious-free or-
along with multitude of other resilience and ganizational culture of resilience and wellbe-
wellbeing offerings, you’ll find our 4 hour on- ing. Customizable assessments, workbooks,
line course “Path to Wellbeing: Bouncing Back and programming tools such as Resilience
with Resilience Wheel.” In this course you’ll Wheel tools; My Values Assessment; Orga-
gain a unique insight into research, myths, nizational Vicarious Trauma Crisis Response
and facts about the science of resilience and and Resilience Building Assessment; Wellbe-
wellbeing; explore practical strategies and ing and Resilience Building Survey for Leader-
tools with the Resilience Wheel; engage in a ship and HR; Wellbeing and Resilience Build-
series of step-by-step experiential exercises ing Survey for Staff; 7 Programming Strategies
and assessments specifically selected to em- Worksheet will be provided for download. This
power and inspire you to find your own path course will give you or your team a blueprint
to wellbeing; discover a great abundance of for personal and organizational resilience and
amazing free or mostly free resources, plat- wellbeing for years to come.

KEYNOTES, TRAINING, AND CONSULTING OPPORTUNITIES

We offer a wide range of speaking, training, and strategic development opportunities. To learn
more-please visit www.olgaphoenix.com. To request a keynote for your upcoming conference,
private agency training, or resilience and wellbeing assessment, evaluation, and programming
consulting opportunity- please email us at [email protected]. We cannot wait to see how
we can be of service to you and your team!
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Copyright @ 2020 Olga Phoenix, All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form without prior permission or copyright licensing. Copyright permissions and licensing are available at www.olgaphoenix.com or
at [email protected]