Resilience is not necessarily about getting rid of pain or avoiding adverse events, but instead allowing space for alternative reactions and responses to experiences that are challenging. When facing hardship, there is often an automatic repression or pushing down of the pain, expending valuable energy into anesthetizing oneself. For many, trauma teaches them to ignore and discount their feelings. As they begin to heal, they can transform that disbursed energy back into their life in the present moment.
Life inevitably consists of highs and lows. But what if you could better prepare for those unexpected life-changing situations or stressful circumstances so you are better able to adapt in moments of adversity?
That is where resilience comes in. Resilience is about your ability to not only rebound from difficult experiences but to channel them as a source of personal growth.
Painful and difficult experiences are guaranteed in life. But you always have control over the way you respond to these events by modifying your behaviors and growing from each experience. Resilience is not just about getting through difficult situations as it provides empowerment to thrive on the other side of that adversity.
The first step is managing expectations. Often the most resilient people have survived the most painful circumstances. The road to building resilience usually involves a significant amount of suffering and emotional pain.
While some factors like environment and disposition might be predictive of resilience, ultimately, it is determined through behaviors and thoughts that at any moment you have the power to change and modify. To become more resilient, the first requirement is to decide that you want to learn and develop different ways of responding to events in your life. It’s the small pause you take before engaging in the automatic response that can determine a drastically different outcome.