Resilience, the Key to Longevity of Spirit

Most of us bend and eventually break.

External and internal pressures weigh on us until we enter crisis. And, most of the time, it doesn't happen all at once. We suffer one thousand cuts and bend a knee to forces we do not control.

It doesn't have to be this way.

We ARE in control of what is necessary to adapt.

You can be angry at the world and the people around you and spiral downwards or you can use that anger to create change in your life.

You can feel saddened by the state of the world or you can realize that your discontent is really a signal to your deepest self that you hope for a better future.

Reframing how you view emotional responses is one aspect of a skill called: resilience.

A Soft Skill Built with Time

One of the most immediate things we need also takes a long time to grow:

A resilient mind.

It doesn’t happen overnight. Resilience is a layered skill. Circumstances, support systems, genetics, experiences and more dictate whether or not you are inclined to have a resilient mind. But, regardless of where you start the race, you can build one with practice and time.

Here are 3 daily tasks you can do to craft an unbreakable mind:

1. DO UNCOMFORTABLE THINGS
   Stuff happens. Most of the time we grow when we're put into tough situations and create a way out of it. But, we don't have to wait for these situations to arise. We can seek discomfort in small ways every day to force ourselves to question our beliefs, come up with solutions, reaffirm personal philosophies and create new opportunities.

2. BUILD EMOTIONAL SELF-RELIANCE
   Learn to understand and lean into your emotions. Each and every day assess how you feel during and after specific events. The first step to building emotional self-reliance is awareness of your emotions. We run on auto-pilot so much of the time that we sometimes need to create space to generate internal dialogues with ourselves as a medium of understanding.

3. CRAFT A BELIEF SYSTEM
   Each and every day build or break down your belief system. It is one thing you can create for yourself and have mastery over. A belief system isn't something you can create once and forget. It is something that you will always be tinkering with. It is a system of systems. It is something that requires reflection, repair and constant construction. Use each action you take to edit your belief system.

The Key to Growth

So, why bother?

We live in a constantly evolving world. Technology and medicine are advancing at speeds we have never seen before. Many of us struggle to keep up with innovation and feel frustrated by all of the change.

Resilient minds are adaptive . They bend and grow to meet new standards, new rules, new norms or they find ways to make their own philosophies work in different environments.

The biggest determining factor for growth is consistency. After consistency, adaptation. In order to excel at either of these you need to craft a resilient mind.

What are some ways you generate a resilient mind in your life? Do you foster support systems? Do you set small, actionable goals? Do you reframe situations to find solutions? Are you working on building self-efficacy, the belief in one’s ability to influence outcomes?

The things that are worth their weight in gold are often the hardest to achieve. Keep at it!