“Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.” — Josh Billings
Resilience: the power of springing back; readily recovering. Resilience is an attribute which, if we do not already have, we would do well to develop. Much as we hope our lives will be blessed and free of setbacks, reality often has other plans.
We learned this lesson early with our first bike. Naturally we had a few spills, but we kept getting back on and trying again. Even once we had mastered the technique, we knew that a bump on the road or a moment’s inattention could find us on the pavement. We accepted that risk. The alternative would be to sit on the curb, watching others have fun.
Life sometimes has a way of upsetting our plans or collapsing our vision of how we thought things would be. It may be the loss of a loved one, a divorce, loss of a job, loss of a friendship or health setback.
Of course, we need to take the time to grieve our loss, but we must not let it define us. In the back of our minds we need to tell ourselves that while it might be hard to imagine now, we will one day move on. Life can still be good, even if it is different. We can still find happiness, even if it is not the way we thought it would be.
We all have the ability to be resilient; however, we must consciously choose to access that power. Life is what it is, but resilience can alter its quality.
Gwen Randall-Young is an author and award-winning psychotherapist.
