Resilience

​Resilience is a word we hear a lot these days. It is defined as, “the psychological and physical capacity to bounce back, adapt, or recover quickly from adversity, trauma, or significant stress. Rather than meaning invulnerability, it involves flexing through hardship and using life's challenges as opportunities to learn, grow, and strengthen your ability to handle future pressures.
 
This can be quite hard, as it is not something commonly taught when we are children. Following on from my thoughts about self-care, this quote below was spot on for me:
 
“Resilience isn’t pretending things are fine or pushing through alone. It’s about caring for ourselves, connecting with others and taking helpful steps forward, even in difficult times." Action for happiness
So often in life we are encouraged to fight our way forward, to push to make things happen. In Unity sometimes, the messages can seem to be saying – just be positive, hold the right thoughts, speak the right words, and all will be well.
 
There is no doubt that being positive is a good thing to do. But, when dealing with trauma, a different approach is needed. Kindness, compassion, self-care, awareness of the self and its needs, along with a deepening awareness of our Self (the divinity we already are) in community are the real way trauma can be healed.
 
Remember, we are not doing the healing – it is being done through us. “It is not I but the Christ within that does the work.” For me, this humility and vulnerability are required, for true healing to happen.
 
Rev Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK