My Number One sporting hero was tennis player Ashleigh Barty. What made her so special to me is not so much her exceptional achievements on court as her stand-out resilience. She is a person everyone can learn from.
In simple terms, resilience is the capacity to bounce back from adversity. However, it is a quality that is far more complex than that. The resilient person has a deep belief in themselves and their capacities, which is like a thick core of rubber that gives them their bounce-back mentality. This core allows them to remain calm, steady and positive when challenges come their way. So, Ash does not get panicked by setbacks but stays in charge of herself. She trusts that everything will be okay because she knows she can regain her equilibrium.
However, resilience is also characterised by flexibility as much as equilibrium. Ash maintains her focus on her goals by moving with the moment, adjusting her whole self to the situation at hand. The ability to adjust is based in awareness. Resilient people are awake to situations, to their own emotional and mental reactions, and the behaviour of those around them.
It’s easy to see Ash Barty as a remarkable. However, it is a mistake to think that the qualities that make her resilient are a given by birth. Resilience is not something that is inherited; it is something each of us can develop. It is also something every individual must develop if they are to survive and move forward in the chaos of change.
When times are unprecedented as they are now, a special kind of resilience is essential: it is whole-of-self resilience that can withstand short-term events, such as a hurricane, as well as slow-moving, persistent issues, such as living with financial stress, constant social change or chronic health problems.
Resilience of this kind accepts the ups and down, the shocks and challenges of living in a world where circumstances and can and do turn on the throw of a dice It allows you to move forward with spiritual integrity, even when a situation is frightening or painful.
Strategies for Building Whole Self Resilience
Body
Resilience begins with increasing the vitality of the physical body. If you are tired, unwell or unfit, your body cannot resist mental and emotional stress. Therefore, to build whole-self resilience, start by being aware of the body. Review its needs by regularly observing its immediate needs and acting on that information. Give it that which makes it feel happy and strong. We have a PDF on that in our Freebie section.
Practical Tip 1 Take a moment right now to pay attention to your body. Does it need anything to make it feel more comfortable or alive? A drink? A stretch? A breath of fresh air? If so, make sure you address that need as soon as possible. (If you find it difficult to be aware of your body, we recommend the Reach Potential Silver Membership techniques: Being in the Body: Lessons 1 and 2.)
Emotions
Once the body is healthy, emotional resilience becomes easier. Emotional resilience is created by allowing the emotional self to live and flow in the present, accepting the dark times while making sure you immerse it in positive experiences that give comfort, pleasure, wonder or calm. The emotionally resilient person is able to acknowledge, and then let go of counterproductive responses, such as fear, fury and worry, so that they can return to equilibrium.
Practical Tip 2 Sit with yourself. Are you aware of any physical discomfort? If you know your body is basically healthy, those sensations are signals of emotional discomfort. Use any technique you are familiar with, or a Siramarti technique to release that energy. Then turn on your endorphins by closing your eyes to remember an experience that gives you gives you delight or joy. Make it a habit to seek activities daily that give you emotional excitement or delight as these are the ones that promote vitality.
Our Inner Peace All Day Every Day online course provides visualisations to clear stress, anger, anxieties and worries, as well as showing you how to bring joyful energies into your consciousness.
Mental Self
Mental resilience allows for flexible problem-solving. It means letting go of those learned strategies and mental beliefs that are no longer working as they used to. Mental resilience involves having clarity about the realities of the situation and the capacity to reframe a problem so that it can be addressed in a different way.
Practical Tip 3 Make a habit of asking yourself, “Could I find a better, or more efficient way to do this?’ If you find that you have a fixed mental belief that says something cannot or should not happen, change that belief. If you do not have your own method for that, you can find an effective one in our book The Good Work Book: How to enjoy your job & make it spiritually fulfilling, a link to which can be found in our Store at https://www.reachpotential.com.au/bstore
Spiritual Self
Resilience involves two kinds of response to the difficulties of enforced change. The first is adaptation. Physical, emotional or mental adaptation creates resilience by helping you bounce back into essentially the same state of stability as you had before. However, if adaptation is not possible, it is essential to bounce forward by transforming your responses to difficulty by finding better or inspired solutions to replace the old ones.
Transformational change is the basis of spiritual resilience because inspirational solutions are the result of being able to tap into one’s spiritual wisdom and apply them in a practical way to the real world. This is, of course, Reach Potential’s primary aim in sharing the Siramarti processes.
Practical Tip 4 The more you cultivate a felt connection to the higher self, the more you are open to spiritual solutions based on its wisdom and love for you. There is a PDF in our Freebie section of the website called Holding the Hand of Your Higher Self that everyone can enjoy.
Author: Suzie St George
Photo credit: Murray Rudd @Pixabay
Copyright 2021 Siramarti Publishing Pty Ltd
