#FF Friday's Fabulous Finds: Coping With Traumatic Events in Boston

 

Thought for the Day: After the events in Boston this week, one could easily lose complete faith in humanity. In spite of the gravity of the events, here are some articles to remind you that most people are good. Hopefully, these finds will help you cope with all the difficult news & build resillience. You will be able to learn about the psychology of terrorism, read a moving story, & more. As I prepare this post, CNN is reporting the capture & death of one of the terrorists & a massive manhunt in Boston for the 2nd terrorist. To those of you in the Boston area, stay safe in your homes knowing that an army of police are working to keep you safe & the world is watching, hoping for the speedy conclusion of these stressful events.

The first find,  The Boston Marathon is Everything That's Right with the World, focuses on how the Marathon depicts the magnitude of the human spirit, in the face of countless negative news reports about the explosion. As the author, Katie Lannan, describes it: “It’s a 26.2-mile chain reaction of support, & today it stretched longer than it ever has before, when a collaborative spreadsheet cropped up, full of Bostonians offering lodging to stranded strangers, when exhausted marathoners reportedly kept going until they reached Mass General & could donate blood, when the Red Cross announced they’d met their need after only a handful of hours.”

In Resilience, coping, and faith: How our beliefs help us during hard times, the 2nd find, coping

strategies are examined. Focusing on the breaking news following tragic events is one way of trying to understand traumatic events. This article gives some tips on other ways to cope.

In the third find, Psychology of Terrorism, John Grohol, PsyD, CEO of website PsychCentral, describes why terrorism occurs. Obviously, this is one of our less uplifting pieces, but understanding the psychology behind terrorism may help us make sense of the Boston Marathon tragedy & find ways to reduce terrorism.

People Are Good, After All, our fourth find, provides research results that support the belief that people's "first impulses are selfless." The author, Adrian F. Ward, put it well: “If human nature is simply the way we tend to act based on our intuitive and automatic impulses, then it seems that we are an overwhelmingly cooperative species, willing to give for the good of the group even when it comes at our own personal expense.

My fifth fabulous find, Shattered Glass, written by educator, parent, LICSW & consultant, Margie Bogdanow, (who also happens to be my sister-in-law) recounts a true Bostonian’s agony in discovering the acts of terrorism against her beloved hometown. She recommends that we react to this hardship through “caring for one another, by continuing to find the good in one another, by smiling at strangers, by helping those in our midst who need it – today & everyday, by holding our families close, by listening to our children, by finding creative & constructive ways to express our angst & anger, & most importantly, by each of us continuing to do whatever we can possibly do to make this world a better place.”