Resilience. What is it good for? Absolutely Something!

Hello once again dear readers. I hope you are all well. But are you resilient? Let’s explore this notion, shall we?

The dictionary has two definitions:

• the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

• the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.

And now lets process this interesting quote:

Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages: a belief that they can influence life events; a tendency to find meaningful purpose in life’s turmoil; and a conviction that they can learn from both positive and negative experiences.

by Amanda Ripley

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I have to agree with Ms Ripley that there is something precious about feeling a sense of resilience when faced with life’s challenges.

In a previous post I discussed how we use intuition to deal with fear. I think resilience is a partner of intuition, as it fortifies one’s plan of action when facing the unknown.

“We think conscious thought is somehow better, when in fact, intuition is soaring flight compared to the plodding of logic. Nature’s greatest accomplishment, the human brain, is never more efficient or invested than when its host is at risk. Then, intuition is catapulted to another level entirely, a height at which it can accurately be called graceful, even miraculous. Intuition is the journey from A to Z without stopping at any other letter along the way. It is knowing without knowing why.”

- from The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence, by Gavin de Becker

Someone with proper resilience can use their belief that they can influence life events to better face this very real fact: we nearly always have less than 100% certainty of future outcomes. But it is in the deciding that we can potentially harness both our intuitive hunches and our inner strength.

Easier said than done. But what is the alternative?

Finding meaningful purpose in life’s turmoil must take into account that when mistakes or poor results happen, moving forward with the right attitude can make a difference. And this is buttressed by the additional belief that we can learn from both positive and negative experiences.

As we face the next chapter of our lives we have to rely on more than parsing data and far more than relying on one’s previous autopilot reactions. It is risky to get out of our comfort zone, but we must strive for a life worth living.

Later,

Neill