Own the power of resilience – confidence and personal strength
Why is resilience important?
The longer one lives, the occurrence and severity of daily stress, adversity and loss and its accompanying grief, will only increase. Therefore the need to create greater resiliency as a cornerstone for a healthy life is paramount.
Experiences from traumatic events involve some form of stress and loss and typically result in grief and suffering. Stress is lessened with resilience. And suffering is mediated and healed through resilience, and will ultimately enrich and strengthen our lives. The more resilient an individual is, the greater the likelihood that they will suffer less and will return to a fulfilling, joy-filled life much quicker than those with less resilience.
Who needs Resilience?
Given the rapid pace of change in society today and its profound human impacts, along with the reality that every individual will experience loss in their lifetime, it is essential for everyone to develop and strengthen their personal resilience capability.
When is resilience required?
Life is full of ups and downs, good, bad and sideways therefore it is important to understand and practice resilience on a daily basis to help navigate it’s accompanying emotional pitfalls and maintain equanimity. Often our lives are disrupted (and even placed on hold) for an inordinate amount of time while we experience a cessation of normal breath and normal life. Some examples of traumatic life events when resilience is absolutely crucial include:
- Death of a loved one – e.g. bereavement;
- Relationship end – e.g. divorce, separation;
- Career change or loss of employment;
- Loss of financial stability or loss of security;
- Serious illness or loss of health;
- Loss of innocence – rape, kidnap, incest, reputation, childhood victims;
- Loss of friendship, family fractures;
- Moving or relocation – loss of familiarity;
- Retirement – loss of status;
- Aging – loss of vitality;
- Other traumatic events (e.g. violence – injuries, terrorist attack, etc.); and
- Daily stress (workplace and classroom challenges, commuting, conflicts, parenting, loneliness, depression, negative emotions, negative thoughts, etc.).
When is Resilience appropriate for bereavement?
There are many models and processes which help one cope with grief and its attendant emotions. The most renowned Kubler-Ross 5 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance can benefit those preparing for death and/or processing the death of a loved one or other traumatic loss. Often these stages are all that one can manage in the aftermath of loss, however there comes a point when the ‘Grief Acceptance’ stage opens the door to re-engage in life and that is when the Create Resilience process becomes fundamental to achieving a ‘new joyful normal’ life.
To understand where you create personal resilience and most important, how you create personal resilience read… Where and How of Resilience
“Resilience is the art of moving forward in the face of adversity” – Margaret Hansen
Resilience for Joyful Living 