How to become resilient.
Everyday, I hear of people in my office express how they are becoming more resilient. ‘I breathe through my stress now…,” “I can move with much more grace…,” or most recent, “since I started care I just see life differently…”
These are common statements as we begin the path of reconnecting and becoming more resilient.
Resilience in our culture is a bit of an elusive concept. Basically it has us define resilience as the ability to handle stress. In a further definition, it comes from the root word “resilio” which means to “spring back,” both physically and mentally.
To spring back physically means that we literally release bound tension and unravel ourselves physically. This could be within the spine, tissues or organs. Instead of physical body becoming overly stiff and rigid, it stays pliable, flexible and buoyant so when stress does arise in our environment, we are able to not only take it on and survive, but we are able to let the energy and stress move through us and we springboard ourselves to new levels of well-being.
On a mental level, we all hit lows. We hit depressive, lethargic, sad and angry moments of our life. The question is, do we bounce back? Are we able to spring back mentally from our “misperceptions” of our environment. The cause of mental suffering is not the circumstance, but more so how we perceived the circumstance. The Buddha said something like, we suffer from our innocent ignorance. Meaning, it was a little slip of our perception where we developed a belief about the way we saw it, and then held that belief and continued to tell ourselves a story about it. It’s an angle that our mind took on a situation, and held that angle without investigating the truth. Resilience would be the moment you see the truth, and you mentally spring back from your misperception to realize the truth of what is or did occur.
In my coaching, this is what we do. Discover the truth about what went on, whether it be a stress, worry, anxiety, death, or anything that you may be suffering about. How to we get to the truth.
Beyond the coaching, what can we do today to increase our resilient? Here are three strategies you can quickly work with on a daily basis to increase your resilience and live life as a super adapter.
1) Expansive Breath- Everyone who is alive knows how to breathe. But breathing as a survivor is very different than someone who is breathing as a super adapter. The breath of a survivor is short and shallow and non-symmetrical between the quantity of inhale to exhale. To support being a super resilient, you need to stretch the range of your breath and body beyond your comfort zone and exceed your minds limitations. All great athletes know that it is outside this comfort zone that allows you to truly get into the flow, and exceed normal expectations. The normal do normal things. The super adapters do the extraordinary.
2) Massive Movement- Your range of motion and emotion go hand in hand, and you know the super stiff are the super rigid. The more rigid you become the less adaptable to your environment in terms of slips and falls, trauma, emotional stress, or work chaos. Movement breeds life, and the more movement you can get while exploring your body’s fullest range, the better. It will vitalize your organs, stimulate healthy hormones, and engage your muscles and skeletal system. Movement is a component to keep you vital.
3) Laughter- Laughter yoga has caught on because there is enormous value to a good belly laugh. It stimulates the vagus nerve which is the nerve involved in releasing stress and tension and worry as well as the part of the nerve system to self regulate and heal. Laughter, a deep belly laugh, especially daily, will take your well being to another level, keep you humble to life, and not take yourself too seriously. They say a spiritual laugh is done at yourself, not at the expense of another.
So breath, move and laugh will be the first 3 in a a 7 step formula for ultimate mind body resilience. To get your hands on the other 4 go grab our Guide to Resilience.
Love and light,
Dr. Steve
