This writing was inspired by asking my Sifu how he would define being resilient. This is a collaboration of his words mixed together with insights from me. 

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 The first thing he said was, “To be resilient is to have inner courage in the face of adversity.”

We all have our own perspectives of what an adversity is—dictionary.com’s definition of the adjective is:

springing back; rebounding
I have this visual in my head of the saying, “weebles wobble, but they never fall down.”

returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched
I disagree with this definition, we cannot go back to what we were, once we know a truth.

recovering readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyant
I am sure you know of someone, or maybe you have had a miraculous recovery from an adversity.

This past year has been a pressure-cooker; how did your resiliency come through? Did you rise and get back up? Or did you blame a god/circumstance/someone else and become a victim?

Those who rise to the height of their purpose — that’s resiliency. 

Sifu suggested that resiliency is an embedded quality in human nature, like we notice in the way of a child. They stumble, get back up and continue. We become fragile and frail as we get older because we forget our inherent “courage” and we do not want to be hurt or vulnerable. 

To resist the wear and tear of life. To reestablish our foundation and come back to playfulness, again the way of the child. Children are always in alignment because they are present with whatever is happening in the moment.

He continued to explain that we need to bear the burdens that come into our lives— going forward with it all—with vulnerability, kindness, grace, trust and courage. Not anger.

A well known quote comes to mind, “Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.”

The will to live is as simple as the will to continue breathing. Breath is the quickest way to regain alignment from within, which begins to give us the resiliency we need.

We all have days when we admit to ourselves that we do not know how we are going to make it through the day—then someone calls us or something happens, and resiliency arises from within. Magical alignment.

With the thought that resiliency, is our human nature, I thought I would share a few key ingredients [note: they are not in any specific order]:

• laughing
• imagination
• being vulnerable
• see the light in every being
• courage 
• being in service
• playfulness
• loving others without conditions
• joyful
• kindness to all, including myself
• forgiveness 
• being vulnerable
• giving from your heart
• loving myself
• grace
• trusting within

I invite you to use an affirmation for becoming resilient with alignment: I will face whatever arises in my life with _______. Feel free to choose an ingredient from the list or come up with one of your own. If you have a different one, I would love you to list a comment below, so we share it with others.

I will leave you with this…

A laugh is like a small vacation.
Nonsense is food to our soul.

photo: Karim Mantra @unsplash.com