Resilience seems to be the word of the moment. I’ve heard people talking about resilience only slightly less than I’ve heard “Coronavirus” or “Covid 19”. Businesses, individuals, companies and workplaces are all talking about resilience and what it means for them.
When a word is used so much and so frequently its meaning can often get diluted or warped. Lots of the talk I’ve seen about resilience focuses on pushing through the pain or trying to ignore your sadness and keep going regardless. To me this is not resilience, this is a pathway to more pain and sadness.
Right now there are people feeling a whole range of understandable emotions from anxiety, fear, and anger through to frustration, sadness and helplessness and a the whole gamut of other emotions too. Whatever you’re feeling you have the capacity for resilience, but that does not mean pushing through or denying your experience – it means the opposite. Resilience is about acknowledging and recognising your feelings and once acknowledged, choosing what you do about them. The pain you experience is an alarm signal from your mind and body that something isn’t right, resilience is hearing the alarm and taking action.