How would your life be different if you were more resilient?

An old Juniper tree growing on a mountain

What is resilience? Why would you want it, and how can you build your resilience?

About Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to cope; it is the ability to thrive when others struggle.

The key to resilience is a healthy mind, and a healthy mind has the following attributes:

  • Focus
  • Calmness
  • Relaxation
  • Mindfulness

Here are some insights into these four pillars of resilience

Focus

With focus, you can choose what to focus on. Your mind doesn't slip into fearful, critical or resentful mind loops that take your attention and hold it.


Calmness

A calm mind can rest. Calmness is the top-of-the-mountain or tropical beach experience where the modern mind takes a day off, and you bask in the experience of the present moment.

Mental calmness is available to everybody almost all the time, but we have been taught that we need particular circumstances, usually with a price tag attached to experience it. That is not true.


Relaxation

The always-on, 24/7 and 365, modern world, along with constant striving, can engage our bodies and minds from waking to sleeping.

We are constantly alert and ready for action, moving as quickly as possible from one activity and another. We also adopt another false belief: "We don't have time to relax!" The reality is that we don't have the tools to relax.


Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the undistracted awareness of the experience of the present moment.

The modern mind believes that the present moment is something to get out of the way so we can get to a future where we will experience what we want to experience and feel how we want to feel; again, that's not true.

By constantly striving for a golden future and discounting the present moment, we become disconnected from our minds, bodies, the present moment, nature, and others. Building resilience is reconnecting to our lives, and mindfulness is the foundation for reconnection.


The Seven Steps to Building Resilience

Over the next few days, I will list and explain the fundamental skills you need (for free) in my newsletters and on social media, so you can choose which areas to focus on to build your resilience.

I will also explain the practical steps you can take to make these changes.

I began this article with the four pillars of focus, calmness, relaxation, and mindfulness.

Over this critical first week of 2023, I will explain in detail the other steps you can take to build your resilience.

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RobertMitchell

RobertMitchell

#meditation, #resilience and #mindfulness teacher (I’ve taught about 3,000 classes). Founder of @bromleymindfulness and @themeditationcourse
London, England.