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In a world fraught with uncertainties and challenges, cultivating resilience is not just a skill but a necessity. Sadhna Monteiro Bleicher, psychotherapist, and thought leader, unveils her transformative strategies for building resilience and overcoming adversities with greater strength in her latest lecture event.
Believing in Resilience, Sadhna will explore fundamental principles and practical techniques for nurturing resilience in everyday life. From navigating challenges in personal relationships to overcoming professional setbacks, Sadhna’s strategies offer a holistic framework for resilience that encompasses mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
“We know that life is full of ups and downs, and our resilience determines how we face these difficult moments,” says Sadhna. “Awakening our internal resilience empowers us to overcome adversities and emerge stronger and more resilient in the process.”
Resilience is often discussed as the ability to bounce back from setbacks, overcome challenges, and move forward. However, there are lesser-known or often-discussed aspects of resilience:
● It’s not a fixed trait: While resilience is often portrayed as an innate quality, it’s essential to recognize that it can and should be developed over time. As muscle strengthens with exercise, resilience can be cultivated through practice, learning, and experience.
● Being resilient doesn’t just mean overcoming obstacles but also involves accepting circumstances and adapting to them as best as possible. This may include adjusting expectations, changing course when necessary, finding new ways of dealing with challenging situations, and even knowing when to stop. Stopping is also a form of resilience as it reflects recognition of danger or that the tools available are insufficient to survive with average quality of life (physical, mental, or spiritual) standards.
● One of the most associated ideas with resilience, which couldn’t be more wrong, is that we must overcome or manage difficult situations alone. Although resilience involves the ability to recover on one’s own, this doesn’t mean that we should face challenges entirely alone.
Social and emotional support plays a fundamental role in strengthening this emotional capacity. A reliable support network can provide comfort, guidance, and resources to cope with difficulties. Friends, Family, Therapists, coworkers, and relationship partners are key factors that help us exercise our limits and grow in this measure.
A resilient person continues to be vulnerable and in touch with their emotions, thus needing to validate them whenever necessary and healthily integrate them.
We face a continuous process in which resilience is not a permanent state but an ongoing evolution. Moments of weakness, doubt, and difficulty arise. It is essential to learn from these challenges, cultivate self-compassion and empathy, and keep moving forward, even when it seems complicated.
Resilience is often seen as an admirable quality for dealing with life’s challenges.
However, there are times when this same experience can be contradictory and even exhausting. Here are some arguments illustrating this contradiction:
- Excessive expectations: When someone demonstrates resilience, they are often expected to continue facing difficulties without showing weakness. This can create additional pressure on resilient individuals, making it difficult to express their needs or ask for help when necessary. This can lead to emotional and physical exhaustion.
- Lack of recognition and support: While resilient people are expected to overcome challenges, they often need adequate recognition or support for their achievements. This can lead to feelings of discouragement and loneliness, making the journey even more exhausting.
- Unrealistic social standards: Society often idealizes resilience as a quality that allows people to overcome difficulties and return to “normal quickly.” This can lead to the depreciation of experiences of suffering and trauma, putting pressure on individuals to recover more quickly than is realistic, which can be exhausting and even harmful.
- The cycle of continuous adversities: For some people, life seems to be an endless series of challenges and difficulties. Even if they are incredibly resilient, repeatedly facing traumas and stresses can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion over time.
- Neglect of self-care: Resilient people often focus so much on facing and overcoming challenges that they may neglect their well-being and self-care. This can lead to a downward spiral of physical and emotional exhaustion despite their ability to deal with difficult situations.
In summary, while resilience is a valuable quality, it’s essential to recognize that there are times when it can be contradictory and even exhausting, especially when unrealistic expectations, lack of support, or adversities are persistent and challenging. It is essential to balance the ability to cope with difficulties with the practice of self-care and seeking support when necessary.
