By Hannah Moore
Our plans don’t always play out the way we expected. Sometimes, this can result in positive life changes. In these instances, we likely don’t need help to emotionally cope with those. Other times, however, we can experience negative life changes, also known as unexpected challenges. Losing a loved one, financial hardship, divorce, childhood trauma are among many life challenges we can- and do- experience.
Our capacity to withstand and recover from these challenges is the definition of resiliency. It is also the most important component of healing from trauma.
Resiliency is an extremely important life skill and with a ripple effect. Resiliency has the power to heal individuals, communities and systems.
“Change is a constant in life. Nothing gives us immunity from it. Resilience is the capacity to adapt to negative change and recover from it as quickly as possible,” as Charles Hunt points out in his TED Talk titled What Trauma Taught Me About Resilience. “How we process, respond to and act will have huge implications on where the story goes from here. Whether we succumb to it or surmount it.”
How we deal with challenges begins with our minds. What are we telling ourselves? This is where trauma can be our teacher.
We can stop and ask, what is this life challenge trying to tell us? Can we view this event as an opportunity to practice resiliency?
Lifespheres is all about encouraging people to find their inner resilience in order to heal from trauma. Through our programs, social media posts and our resources on Lifespheres.org/skills-for-life, the mission of LifeSpheres is to promote resiliency in individuals and throughout the world. If one person hears the message of resiliency, they can pass it to another person, who might pass it to yet another person, and this is how the world heals from trauma.