How Our Emotional Reservoir Supports Our Resilience

How much have we heard the word 'resilience' since the pandemic hit us?

Possibly because it's 'the salt of life', we would say in my mother tongue, and it's what supports our sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves and our ability of being connected to ourselves and our community.

​I disagree with one of most of the common metaphors associated with 'resilience'. 

I distance myself from this idea that we as human beings can ‘bounce-back’ from adversities.

it implies that we are like rubber balls who get pushed to the ground and spring back up. As if when faced with a challenge, after crashing on the ground, we can come back to the same place we were, ‘pick ourselves up' and carry on as if nothing had changed.

But a lot has changed. Sometimes for the worst, sometimes for the best.

Either way, change needs acknowledging: there is so much learning, growth, expansion and love that happens in the thick of a crisis.

So, I went back to my school days and looked at the etymology of the word Resilience - I love going to the roots of meaning making, don't you?

---

The word 'resilience' comes from the Latin root RESILI, meaning the ability to spring back in relation to the capacity of plants to adapt themselves to different conditions – think of a flower growing through concrete.

In physical science, it is seen as the ability of a material to return to its original state after it has been bent or stretched. It is like an elastic band that can stretch to accommodate objects of different shapes and sizes, and then return to its original form when released.

In relation to human behaviour, resilience is the capacity to remain flexible in our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours when faced with life disruption, or extended periods of pressure so that we emerge from difficulty stronger, wiser and more able.

'Like a plant, we emerge from difficulty and emerge stronger, wiser and more able'.  Carole Pemberton 

I believe that resilience is about being open to moving through difficulties, challenges and opportunities and learning and growing from the consequences of that risk that you choose to take/ or were forced to live through.

Join me for this Facebook live to hear about my favourite image to support our resilience i.e. the Emotional Reservoir.

---

YOu are welcome to join Feel At Home Anywhere in the World