Resilience is More than Bouncing Back

When we think of the word “resilience”, we think of springing back. Resilience is more than bounding back. Recovering from a difficult situation physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. With tenacity and will-power. Or with humour. Well, hopefully with humour.

There is a sense of toughness perhaps. Coming back to fine form, after being twisted and bent.

According to the Institute of HeartMath, this is but one part of resilience. Their definition is more comprehensive. Resilience is an inner battery that you can recharge so you can deal with challenging situations and also to prepare for them beforehand and to adapt appropriately to them.

Why Is Resilience Important?

The ability to bounce back gives us courage to face the difficult, the shadow, and the unknown. It gives us hope that the world, despite the images and verbiage of  “all that is wrong”, is actually alright. That, despite poverty, GMO, Ebola, fake news, rising rates of this or that, and countless of other things going on, we are on the right track. We have tools and we have working solutions.

Is it that more things are wrong? Is the exponential speed and channels of communications of today’s world? Is it also our expanded awareness?

Resilience is about having the energy to come back again and again to the place where we can deal with what is going on and choose from our centre. This inner capacity gives us resolve and strength, without passing the buck, without turning a blind eye.

For many of us, our schedule is packed  The reason, however, of things not getting done is not from a lack of time, but a lack of energy. The bandwidth is simply not there.

When we are “running on fumes” or feeling “drained” even if we do have the entire day, that one simple task will feel insurmountable. To feel better, some reach for energy drinks or more coffee. To come down, some reach for wine or vegging in front of the TV. It can become a cycle, including a cycle of wanting to do what we want, not having the energy, making less-than-great choices, feeling guilty about it and feeling worse and the cycle continues.

When energy is low, it affects emotion balance, clarity in thought, and ability to take right action. Our plummeting energy levels also impacts those around us because we are more likely to overreact, unable to make good decisions or any decisions, and are just generally more irritable and stressed out.

Poor energy management and a lack of resilience diminishes and depreciates the human potential in all of us. Resilience is more than bouncing back. It’s about us moving forward in a healthy way.

How Do We Build our Resilience?

It is about energy management. This means we ensure we charge up and minimize leaks and other depletion. Do an energy audit of your life to see which areas need more attention. Common ones include diet, sleep, stress management, and relationships.  Our emotional domain tends to be where we leaked energy the most. Building emotional intelligence and have an effect stress management which may include lifestyle changes can vastly improve our energy levels.

Regenerative Sleep

One of the best ways to renew our energy reserves is through regenerative sleep. Deep sleep is when the body heals and repairs. It is when we consolidate memories as well. Some ways to help improve the quality of sleep is having good EMF hygiene by removing electronics from the bedroom. If you use your phone as an alarm clock, be sure to put it on airplane mode. EMF disrupts melatonin. Reducing our exposure to light, especially blue light at least an hour before sleep is helpful. By following the natural rhythms of the day keeps us entrained to the natural rise and fall of hormones.

Life Force Food

Eating nourishing and energetic foods is another aspect of energy management.

In a fast-paced world, many people default to a fast-food diet. These are highly processed and low-energy food laced with chemicals. Increasing nutrient-dense food such as organic fruits and veggies can give you much more energy. Chia seed pudding made with plant-based milks makes a good snack. Munch on an apple in the afternoon. Have an herbal tea instead of fueling the wired-but-tired cycle with caffeine. Aside from eating simpler food with sustainably-sourced ingredients, eating mindfully with awareness on how you feel also helps.

Breathing Deep

Breathing fully and completing also helps bring in life force. The Institute of HeartMath teaches various techniques including heart-centred breathing. This is focusing on your heart area while breathing. Slow down and deepen your usual rhythm. If you can, bring in a feeling of appreciation or ease.

Sleeping, eating, and breathing are activities that need to happen so let us make these as renewing as possible. This also means not overtiring ourselves with, for example, too much sitting, too much exposure to the media and any sources of negativity or using too much technology.  (Side note: there are Breatharians and Sun Gazers who require no physical food)

We can also recharge by grounding. Being connected barefoot to the earth’s natural frequencies is immensely beneficial to our health. Earthing, which also discharges negative energy, comes highly recommended by wellbeing gurus like David Wolfe.

Finding and plugging energy leaks is also important to do. No matter how much we renew ourselves we will never be quite 100% if we have holes in our system. To be honest, this is not always so simple. Where we allow our energy to drain out has likely been happening for such a long time that we are no longer conscious of it. So it takes some patience and detective work.

We may have allowed others to manipulate us emotionally. If we have grown up within these patterns, we are less likely to be able to identify them as unhealthy. We may have justified and defended the perpetrators, for many reasons including self-preservation. For these situations a professional such as a psychotherapist or a somatic practitioner may be helpful to identify areas to work on. EMDR also comes highly recommended for trauma.

One of the most common times we deplete is when we get angry, even if we may feel a surge of power at the moment. Is this sensation just a reconnection to your voice and your own feelings? This is not to say not to get angry. There are constructive and productive ways of expressing anger and there are destructive and unproductive ways. The anger isn’t often the issue. A shouting match or temper flareups are more likely triggered not by the situation at hand, but by some buried issue and that is the danger.

Not allowing yourself to feel outraged and hurt will only block the natural flow of energy within your body and other systems. The most important person to be honest with about how you feel is yourself. It is not always possible to engage in conversation with the other party. Simply writing but not sending a note to them can be a helpful tool.

When we do not deal with how we feel or with a particular situation, their effects continue on. These crossover effects, whether as stress or resentment, are a source of energy leaks. Something small, like a pebble in your shoe, will at one point feel like a huge rock. And sharp.

Dr Christiane Northrop says to call back your spirit and parts of you that have been caught in time by using the power of your will and intent. The affirmation she suggests is “I am always being divinely guided toward my highest good on all levels. Divine love now dissolves everything that is not on my divinely designed path.”¹

Every time you make REPEATED contact with aggravating tasks and situations, you make a conscious or unconscious choice to endure (the root of the word endure is ‘to suffer’,) and to settle with less-than-ideal. This kind of aggravation triggers resentment and bad ju-ju.

Danielle LaPorte, Get Immediate Relief:Energy Leaks + Enlightenment

The first step in building resilience is understanding that energy management is possible.

We are not at the whim of energy fluctuations. Well, not completely anyhow.

We are surrounded by energy and while we can somewhat moderate the man-made frequencies by turning off our routers at night, we still exist on a planet moving through a solar system moving through a galaxy moving through a universe. Spatially. Dimensionally. We are affected by solar flares and the massive energy that is coming into our planet at this time. Technology is impacted, and so are we. We are energetic.

Being mindful of how we are expending our energy and how we can better utilize and direct our energy is a key tool in our management protocol. By replenishing our inner battery and our energetic reserves, we can build up our resilience, allowing us to face, adapt, and recover from stress and adversity. Resilience is more than bouncing back.