Lifelines: Finding Your Resilience
If I'm lucky, I'm halfway through this life on earth. And a LOT of stuff has happened! Much of it amazing and beautiful and outrageously good, and a lot of it pure suffering. I know many people who just don't bounce back after traumatic events happen to them- who get frozen in time after a divorce or an illness or a loss. Or who put a little bit of themselves into cold storage year after year, growing more slowly, if at all- living a half life.So, what makes some people able to bounce back and try again?Throughout our lives, there are fundamental opportunities to ask: does this thing that traumatized me break me, or does it create a unique place from which I can serve? In response to difficulty do I say “I am such a victim”, or “Wow, I think I never want to have that happen to anyone else…how can I make a difference in that, how can I help stop this cycle from perpetuating?”
It also helps to know, somewhere deep in your being, that you are unassailable and can't be hurt- even in death. All these layers that make us think otherwise add to fear and create a more limited life.
Even though I will likely experience pain or suffering again, I also know this: Life is an intrinsic good. To live fully and bravely is the ultimate gratitude what we've been given, not squander it in fear and holdbacks.