Resilience

In a world that is becoming increasingly chaotic (my personal opinion), resilience is key. Much of what we believe to be resilience is actually harming us. Along the way we have become so driven to survive that the stress on our bodies is taking its toll. We have forgotten how to take care of ourselves. Becoming resilient will require changes to our schedules.

The Oxford dictionary defines this as:

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

   
   

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

At the Global Leadership Summit a featured speaker, Tasha Eurich, spoke about this. She is an organizational psychologist. I appreciated what she had to say because she believes we have been taught myths about resilience.

Myth 1 says, "Resilience is a muscle." Based on the definition of resilience above, that means we should be able to recover from difficulties quickly. She believes that we CAN'T always improve our resilience. Muscles take time to develop and train. The process is not fast or easy.

Myth 2 says, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." She says the truth is, stress DRAINS our resilience resources.

If stress drains our resources to bounce back, then there is no way we can always recover as quickly as we would like. The world says strength means never stopping. Tasha says this is, "grit gaslighting." The world has us shaming ourselves when we don't "recover" fast enough.

Tasha went on to give "Three-toThrive Needs."

1. Confidence

2. Choice

3. Connection

Within all of those we learn to forgive ourselves because NO ONE is 100% resilient. Our needs are NOT selfish and they are 100% non-negotiable.

One of her final thoughts was, "In the times that break us, we can uniquely remake us."

We are all unique. We all have different recovery methods and time lines from the pain and hurt we have been through. The number one thing we need to remember is that our bodies need REST and the ability to recover when they have been through difficulties.

I'm thankful that when I went through a challenging period in my life that I had family and friends around me that allowed me the time to rest and rebound. Those years have helped "uniquely remake" me. I'm not who I was before. I'm still learning how to take care of me, but when I do, I believe that my ability to be resilient is actually stronger.

Friends - learn to care for yourself. Stop daily, weekly for sure, and take time to rest and refocus. Don't allow the stressful, chaotic world to drag you down and hinder your ability to bounce back. Make the choice to recognize your needs and take care of them. God created a day of rest for reason... because HE CARES for you and wants what is best. He gave us the blueprint and if we follow it, we feel better. Being confident in who we are builds better choices and connections, which strengthens our resilience.

Love and blessings,

Rose