The term resilience came up in one of Erica Diamond’s posts on her blog, Women on the Fence. A guest blogger talked about her cancers – two bouts with two different cancers – and the strengths she discovered while fighting for her life.
The CEO of the company that oversees my teaching job is showing her resilience against cancer – also for the second time.
The first time I heard about resilience was in a training for teachers. We were learning about families with drug and alcohol problems, how to recognize the problems, and how to help the children get the help they needed. Our training showed that resilience comes in many forms and it can be developed and strengthened.
Resilience is a strength, the strength to hold on and survive. It’s more than recovering from influenza, although influenza can knock even the strongest person off her feet for a while. It’s more than getting through that last class for the advanced degree, although that certainly takes strength and endurance.
People who are resilient are not the ones who win all the time. Those folks on the top have strengths, too, but they haven’t been tested. Those who show resilience get tested and come up and out of the test stronger than before. And somehow, resilient people keep a sense of humor.
What doesn’t kill me may make me stronger, but even more than that, every time I find humor in a difficult situation, I win a small battle.
Readers, how do you show resilience? Where do you find strength when the going gets tough?
There’s something inside me that works when things get rough. My personal “glass” may be less than full, it may be three-quarters or two-thirds full, but even at worst, it’s always half full, not half empty. Sounds simplistic but it boils down to attitude, I believe. If we think of the positives even throughout the negatives, it makes it work.