No one would argue: Resilience is a necessary quality for survival.
Resilience. A word we throw around like we know what it means…like we know how to get it…or like we can identify when we have it.
If you have picked yourself up, dusted yourself off and gotten back to work, does it mean you are resilient? Or does it mean you are used to being a pack-animal?
If resilience is the quality of being able to recover and bounce back quickly (and well?) from something difficult…yet you don’t even know where you are bouncing back TO, then where are you going? …and what does bouncing back well mean? Does it mean you bounce back unscathed? Without resentment or a chip on your shoulder? Or does it mean you have enough energy left for the next difficulty?
To bounce back well and quickly you must know where you are starting from. Otherwise how will you find your way back? If you are taken off course, you have to know where to go when you get the opportunity to bounce back. Right?
Listen, the only real estate you have is your own body and mind. It’s the only place to bounce back TO. If you feel you have been taken off course, it means you have extended into the uncomfortable territory of your outermost limits…and the resultant psychological and physical feeling of being off-center, cock-eyed or warped is feedback that you may have gone too far in your exploration.
The fact is, there is no place to bounce back TO but your own self. What resilient means is that you are able to recover your center regardless of how out-of-balance you have gotten – and it is not dependent upon the outer environment. The outer environment is just props.
Now here is the secret: If you don’t feel you are you, in your own space and time here on planet earth, then you will feel disoriented when you try to bounce back. You will feel like you are lost because you cannot find YOU.
Make sure you identify what it feels like to be you. Then, even when you push your outer limits, you cannot suffer the discombobulated and unstable sensation of being adrift.
You are your own mothership. Know that and you are always safe. You can bounce back from anything.