How do you stay resilient in hard times?
If I fall down, trip over or catch my foot (all metaphorically) I simply try to catch myself, land where I fall and breathe. I’ll not fall for the mistake of trying to get back up immediately and brushing myself off. Instead I mindfully sit for a moment, process, feel and accept. The when ready I pick myself up, steady my gaze and simply take another breath and another step.
Resiliency is like a finely woven string of naturally formed highly lustrous pearls. Each one captures a moment, a breath, a breakthrough, and represents pain, loss, grief, fear, acceptance, joy, tenacity and perseverance. Resiliency is a verb – a doing word – an action. It takes practice and commitment- dedication and determination on a daily basis.
It’s not always easy, as the elastic band of coping, perseverance and acceptance really wears painfully threadbare when stretched beyond its normal coping limits. After all it does have a breaking point. And so we breathe, ground and recalibrate.
Each breath is mighty, each moment of tenaciousness is galvanising.
Resiliency is a journey, a pathway filled with bottomless potholes, hazards and washouts. So I learned to climb, sidetrack and backtrack, swim and do anything else that got me over the difficult terrain- one breath at a time and one inch at a time.
I practice radical self empathy, understand somatic trauma and metacognition. I realise that life is like a glass of water, and as much as the demands of being a special needs parent to my daughter with TSC, and two sons who are twice exceptional, I can only drink one sip or mouthful at a time – all else is a futile waste of energy.
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