The Art Of Resilience

Cultivating the mindset of a relentless overcomer

With your heart at your feet and your hopes vanished, grab your things and rise. Difficulties and setbacks are opportunities in disguise.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.” — J.K. Rowling

If you’ve traveled to rock bottom and escaped from it, you are an overcomer. If you’ve had your heart broken and have found a way to make art from the shattered pieces of it, you are an overcomer. If you found the advancement for the good while in the midst of the terribly bad, you are an overcomer.

Resilience is the trailblazer, navigating and pushing through. It has lost at times but is here for the win; resilience survives. With tunnel vision in one hand and might in the other, resilience always moves forward.

Resilience is to have the ability to recover quickly from difficulties and remain steady along the quest. Determined against all storms and fueled plenty, resilience is relentless.

Cause and effect The strength of the will exposes itself; determination reveals. Time is not linear. Time is revelation, the reflection of change. Time is the circular unfolding of cause and effect. We gather moments and place them in the past or into the future when the only “time” is now, endlessly unfolding and revealing a new effect from a cause.

Another way to think about it is this:

Author and transformational speaker Jack Canfield teaches us how to use what he calls a life equation. The equation is E+R=O.

E is for events, R is for responses and O is for outcome. In life, Outcomes are inevitable. It is the Response to Events in the equation of life that matters most, in order for the outcome to be greater than your circumstance if you wish to rise higher.

In this life that we live, there will be setbacks. There will be obstacles, there will be trials, there will be unpleasant events! However, there will be pleasurable events as well, and many of them are born from disasters. What your responses are to events determines everything. Resilience is a mindset.

You can build resilience, grab yourself a mantra Being mindful of your mental activity is key to building resilience. When I first learned to become mindful, I did a practice called monkey chatter. The goal was to become the observer of thought, sharpen focus, and send intentional positive messages once clarity has been established through cancelling all thoughts that popped in my head.

It takes work! It is amazing what speaks inside of you. Thoughts of uncertainty, defeat, fear, joy, happiness, sorrow, and perseverance — conflicting thoughts!

The task in the mindful practice of monkey chatter is to say CANCEL anytime a thought pops up. It does not matter what the thought is, rather good or bad, you are supposed to cancel it in order to show yourself that you can master your mind and build from within.

I remember saying cancel 100 times and even kept finding myself drifting to sleep during the practice. Irritated with how much chatter was going on inside of my head, I peeked inside a bit deeper and listened closely. Finally, I was able to silence the noise and send an intentional message. I learned to replace thoughts which lead me to greater thoughts by not entertaining the lessor ones. I learned to stay on the path of resilience.

I became the observer. Then, I grabbed myself a mantra and begin using it always. I have many of them now, but one that pops in my head a lot (I must have really planted it deep) says, “Everything is okay, greatness is mine.” It is a reminder that comes when something unfortunate happens to me, or when thoughts of defeat occur. This mantra has lifted me up countless times, and has also helped me work my way though moments of anxiety.

Become a mindful observer. You can do this while you do your chores, eat dinner, and run errands too. You can observe within at any time of the day no matter what you are doing and from there, you can embrace, love, demolish, reshape and transform. Build. As long as you can tune into yourself and listen, you can do this.

You can will yourself to where you want to be through the strengthening of resilience and you can become more resilient through the practice of mindfulness. No more conflicting thoughts. Speak strength and greatness over yourself. Strengthen your will. Toughen up your resilience!

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.” — Elizabeth Edwards

This is a cause and effect thing, right? This is a E+R=O thing, right? Well, in life, the unfortunate Event may happened. For me, many times the Response during an event was “Everything is okay, greatness is mine.” Born from the response was a pleasant Outcome. Many times, an even better outcome than what I had before.

It’s okay to be stubborn Persistence is the strength of purpose. We have to take personal responsibility for our lives. Stubbornness is quite alright when it comes to steadily rising higher through the unpleasant surprises of life. Resilience requires stubbornness. Single-minded persistent stubbornness!

Getting back up and starting over, again It does not matter what anyone has to say, it’s okay to start over as many times as you need. This is your life. I have had low paying jobs that weren’t worth my time, fled from unhealthy relationships, lost friends and left some behind. I have been judged. I have been taken advantage of. I’ve endured miscarriages that ached my soul. I have sold all of my possessions to survive. I have been uncertain. I’ve been abused mentally by many, beat my own self up with pity, and I have prevailed! If I can do it, you can too. You say, “But it’s hard and it hurts so bad.” I say, “Pick up your shield, within.”

Cultivate the mindset of a relentless overcomer. Grab yourself a mantra. Create a new cause for a new effect. Switch the response to events happening in your life. Speak strength and greatness over yourself. Get back up. Start over, again. Everything is okay, greatness is yours.

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Thank you Diana C., for this week’s prompt: