Resilience

 Resilience: 1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness. 2. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, elasticity.

Resilience has been described as our ability to recover from adversity.

I don't agree with the dictionary definition of resilience as recovering quickly from adversity. I believe one can be resilient even though recovery may take awhile. It can take time to regain one's footing after a scary cancer diagnosis has been delivered. Once the news has been absorbed, the patient can become resilient and be fully willing to undergo whatever measures need to be taken to be well again.

Psychologists say that resilience can be learned. It's not something we either have or we don't have, according to the site Happify. If you want to bounce back after a setback, you must expect that good things will happen. 

Optimism is the single biggest factor in recovering from adversity. It's what makes some of us seek out solutions to our troubles instead of pulling the covers over our heads, according to Phyllis Zilkha, PhD, clinical psychologist in Manhattan. 

Coincidently, I'm reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, about the time he spent in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This post about resilience did not come about as a result of reading this book, however, no one was more resilient than Dr. Frankl and other prisoners brave enough to envision more than what their horrific surroundings indicated. 

He writes: "...in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone." "It is this spiritual freedom which cannot be taken away - that makes life meaningful and purposeful."

Once again, this is an horrifically extreme case yet proves that resilience is something we can summon up from deep within and it can be learned.

We are in month six of the Covid pandemic, months into racial unrest, deep into the political campaign and doing our best to put a smile on our faces. In addition, each one of us has personal crosses to bear. Yes, we are tough. We are optimistic yet realistic. We are resilient. 

xo