At 10:40 am, Andy Bromberger joins me for Part 3 of Symphony’s Selected Sections and this week the section is brass: trumpets, trombones, horns and the tuba.

My special guest at 11:00 am is Dr Sue Morris, psychologist and academic, joining me in conversation about resilience, a word very much in use at the moment. But what is it? Are we born with it and, if not, can we learn it and how?

Below is a list of suggested readings Sue has provided for those of you who would like to know more:

https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-secret-formula-for-resilience

https://www.happify.com/hd/6-ways-to-be-resilient/

https://www.happify.com/hd/how-to-build-resilience-one-day-at-a-time/

https://www.happify.com/hd/how-to-build-resilience-infographic/

American Psychological Association – Road to Resilience

https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience

https://www.uis.edu/counselingcenter/wp-content/uploads/sites/87/2013/04/the_road_to_resilience.pdf

https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/human-resilience-covid-19

Chapter on Resilience

https://www.nobascholar.com/chapters/4/download.pdf

In terms of building resilience, prevailing wisdom is to develop a set of skills and practices to develop wellbeing and buffer against adversity. When bad things happen (and they invariably will), you then have a repertoire from which to select the tools most likely to produce the best response in that situation. My book, The Rubber Brain, is replete with such tools to self-optimise and deal with adversity, particularly targeted at university students, but helpful to ANYONE. See: https://www.australianacademicpress.com.au/books/details/314/The_Rubber_Brain_A_toolkit_for_optimising_your_study_work_and_life

Music today is all brass – not only the traditional instruments of the orchestra, but some more unusual ones as well.