Introduction
What is Resiliency? Why are some individuals able to be more resilient than others? How is resiliency obtained? What is the importance of resiliency in adults? When is it critical or most important to exude resiliency? Who as adults, are able, to exhibit the characteristics of resiliency and live a resilient life? These are some of the many questions that will be answered in this six- part series on resiliency in adults.
Background
I first stumbled across the term Resiliency during my senior year as an undergraduate student, while obtaining my Bachelor degree in Psychology. I found the concept so fascinating that three of us teamed-up to complete our senior thesis around the topic. The reason I found it to be an exciting concept was because I had been wrestling with a personal situation. I realized that I was being challenged in my life, at the time, to be resilient; but hadn’t realized it was what I trying to cultivate, until I discovered the term Resiliency during my studies.
What is Resiliency?
Resiliency is a continuous concept of daily choosing to rise above the hardships, adversity, challenges, and the daily mundane routines to embrace a higher attitude of being. It is often generically defined as; the ability to rise above a difficult and challenging situation. Though there is truth in the definition, I’ve come to learn that the ability to be resilient encompasses so much more.
In the face of challenges, or adversity, and hardships a
person can choose to allow the challenge to break you, or shape you. Some individuals
know this as a “natural” concept while others struggle daily to live a
resilient life. Being strong while “broken” is a characteristic of a resilient
person. Eric Greitens, a former Navy Seal and founder of "The Mission Continues" https://www.missioncontinues.org/, says it best in his book titled “Resilience”; “At the
center of your life and all that happens to you is you.” So, if you want to be strong when faced with
challenges, adversity, and hardships it is a trait and characteristic which you
can learn, develop, and cultivate in your life. However, it all begins at the
center of you. No other person can be resilient for you, create it for you, or
give it to you. Others can assist you on your journey, but all the thought,
struggle, and implementation must come from within your own self. Every struggle is unique to the individual,
and what is a hardship to one person, could most certainly not be to another.
Resiliency is a series of qualities which a person implements,
and cultivates in their life. It is defined by Eric Greitens in his book “Resilience”
as the following:
Resiliency is….
§
Responsibility and acceptance of consequences of
your actions
§
Key to a well-lived life, a way of being
§
Endurance with direction
§
A virtue
§
A choice
§
An excellence we build
§
Cultivated
Most resilient individuals can embrace the redeeming
qualities of the challenges they encounter. All while mourning their loses and
patiently enduring their frustrations. They manage to look for and find the
silver-lining in the crisis during the worst of circumstances, looking for the
good.It is a Choice
The thoughts we think affect our ability to be resilient during a hardship or while facing adversity. Emotional Intelligence is also a factor and plays a key role in an individual’s ability to maintain and rise above the challenges, these two topics will be discussed in a later blog post. A person’s positivity is vital to their ability to choose resilient characteristics during a challenge. The more frequently a person chooses to be resilient, by taking responsibility for their actions and accepting the consequences of the situation, accepting the teachable moments by embracing and cultivating the lesson or life lesson, the more resilient a person becomes. It becomes easier to rise above the next challenge and easier for the next, and so on.
Embracing your crisis for all that it can teach you is the
foundation for cultivating, developing, and creating a resilient life style.
Coming Soon.....
Click on the following link to preview a video by Amy Cuddy. In this video she addresses the topic of body language. However, there is a greater message about resiliency to be learned.