We are guided by the belief that the resiliency of our people is at the core of holistic health. To us, resiliency is the link to increased capability and readiness of the individual to create an even stronger DoD community. The Fort Meade Resiliency Shield combines the individual shields that support the five pillars of resiliency and serves to assist the Fort Meade community in identifying resiliency programs and facilities throughout the installation. The combined shield was designed by the Fort Meade Alliance in partnership with the Fort Meade Community Health Promotion Council.
Building a Stronger Community
The five pillars of resiliency are critical to the health and success of our military
Emotional
Improving the ability to cope with stress, manage emotions constructively, and find self-acceptance and self-awareness
Physical
Achieving proper nutrition and engaging in regular physical activity
Social
Building and maintaining healthy connections and strong relationships with others
Family
Cultivating family wellness by supporting spouses, partners, children and parents to maintain a healthy and united family
Spiritual
Finding purpose and meaning through organized religion, meditating, creating a value or belief system and connecting to a Higher Power
More About Wellness
Emotional Wellness includes emotional self-awareness and an acceptance of one’s emotional reactions in a way that helps an individual make positive choices and foster positive relationships.
Investing in Emotional Wellness provides:
- The ability to maintain emotional equanimity during stressful situations and bounce back when emotions take a negative turn
- Effective coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety
- Tools to ensure emotional reactions match the circumstances that trigger them
- Acceptance of feeling emotions without guilt or shame
- Effective problem-solving skills
Physical Wellness includes taking care of oneself and maintaining good health.
The benefits of attending to one’s Physical Wellness include:
- Clear thinking
- Higher energy levels
- Increased ability to fight off sickness
- Improved flexibility, agility and cardiovascular health
Social Wellness involves performing social roles according to the needs of family, employers and community, connecting with others in a personal way and knowing how to recognize and cope with unhealthy relationships.
Social Wellness helps individuals:
- Develop healthy relationships that provide positive influence on the lives of those involved
- Develop healthy attachments characterized by mutual respect and an equal give and take
- Recognize when a relationship is harmful to them and understand how to leave it
Family Wellness means setting a good example through healthy behavior that creates a safe, stable environment for children, devoting time to family to ensure active participation in the household and putting family first by being flexible and seeking compromise when conflict arises.
Benefits of developing strong family bonds include:
- Children who are less likely to develop behavioral or emotional issues
- A family better prepared to weather and survive changes
- A reduction in stress and anxiety related to disagreements or arguments
Spiritual Wellness means having personal values and beliefs and acting compassionately in accordance with those values.
Individuals who develop Spiritual Wellness often find that they:
- Are in touch with their potential to create and affect change
- Proliferate good things into the world like love, compassion and peace
- Have a deepened sense of morale and unity
- Have actions and intentions that align agreeably with the environment to the benefit of all within it
- Have expanded perspective that inspires acts of kindness, compassion, tolerance and altruism
