What is Resilience : Resiliency, your journey to bounce back

  What is Resilience ? As we grow, we can take on more difficult challenges and master them. We can not only survive but live.  Life is full of successes and failures. Living is growing and surpassing each trial. Resiliency is a skill that uses the emotions: Hope, Faith, Love, and Stubbornness, to get where we want to be and inspire others. 

With the question what is resilience , The Journey begins

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Resiliency is a skill to be learned and developed for our journey of self-discovery.  We use it daily when things get out of hand. Everyone has this skill to some extent. When we are resilient, our actions make a difference for us and others. Acknowledging we have the resilience skill is the first step in developing it. As we grow, we can take on more difficult challenges and master them. We can not only survive but live.  Life is full of successes and failures. Living is growing and surpassing each trial.

Journeys can be defined as having at least three stages:

• The beginning, where there is the anticipation or necessity of the destination - “I must get to work.”
• The midpoint, where we have time, distance, or obstacles as pressures - “Are we there yet.”
• The completion, where we have arrived. “Finally!”

Resiliency in this situation is solving the challenges to travel from the beginning to completion, the journey taken. Those same skills we use every day to navigate, account for time, the mode of travel, and even dress for an occasion are skills we can use to conquer unexpected life events. This article reveals we all have basic skills to work with until we can get help. This does not take the place of parents, friends, mentors, or professionals to guide or counsel us. This is a starting point on our journey. I can verify I did not always have the time to seek help when emergencies hit. When that happens, all we can do is use the knowledge we have. As we grow from our experiences, we can deal with more challenges. The old saying goes there was one guaranteed path to failure, not trying. So, our journey begins...

Resiliency, What is it?

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What is Resiliency? The common definition is to recover or bounce back from events, trauma, or emotions. This limited definition portrays us as a bouncing ball. Personally, I prefer to define it as the know-how and the skill to recover, move forward, adapt, and grow from circumstances. In fifty years of my life, I have had trauma and problems that seemed insurmountable. Dealing with them was difficult and not always successful. I looked at it as a journey I had to take. I navigated the road, even when there did not seem to be one. I kept moving forward, always wondering if I would get there. I still do not know if I am successful in the voyage. If needed, make another plan and try again. A successful journey is not always known, so all you can do is continue walking. 

The plan is simple. First, we look for where we want to be and what we must do. Second, we develop a strategy to get there. Again, keep it simple. Then we move and act to make it happen. Obstacles will always have to be solved/circumvented or the plan may need adjustment. Just keep moving/acting on the goal. Third, we either get to where we want to be, or we do not. Here is where we learn what went wrong and what we need to fix the next time. This is where we grow, by learning. If we are successful, we will influence our family and friends to do the same.

Resiliency as a journey.

So, how do we utilize what we know to recover, go forward, adapt, and grow from the trials we will have? Let’s start the journey at the beginning. We begin by picking a destination, it can be anything we know we need to do or where we need to be. We will use the instance of a family member fainting on an occasion. 

 

• Ask the person to lie down or sit down. The reason for this is to avoid falling and injury.
• To prevent fainting again, do not let them get up too quickly. If they still feel dizzy, let them lie down for longer and get help.  
• If they are sitting down, have them bend forward with their head between their knees.  Watch them, so they do not fall forward.
• If the person does faint.
• Position the person on their back.
• Check for injuries. If there is none, check for breathing and pulse.
• Raise the person's legs above heart level about 12 inches (30 centimeters) if possible.
• Loosen restrictive or tight clothing.
• If the person doesn't regain consciousness within one minute, call your local emergency number.
• If they regain consciousness, do not let them get up quickly. If they still feel faint, have them lie down and get help.

This can happen to anyone, in any state of health (please see our other articles for help with healthy living). Seeing someone you care for faint, can be overwhelming and emotional. 

For example, there was a five-year-old child, alone, who called Emergency Services for help when his grandfather fainted and did not get up. His journey: Grandfather faints, he cannot wake him up, he gets the phone, calls the emergency service, follows the instructions he is given (see above), and lets the paramedics in to get his grandfather. This is one of many similar happenings where children can make a difference. That means we can do this at all ages. 

To close out the story above, the young child saved his grandfather’s life. The gentleman had a stroke due to traumatic brain injuries suffered in war. The child had learned how to use a phone (this was before cell phones) and dialed “0” for the operator. The child did not know First Aid, but he did know how to ask for help. The child made a simple plan to call professional help. The grandfather lived for over 20 years afterwards, his life saved by the child he got to see grow up into a man. 

What is your journey?

We have events, traumas, or personal crises throughout our life. Our journey begins by picking a destination. As the 5-year-old child demonstrated, we can take small steps and just solve one problem at a time. Those small steps will lead to good outcomes and a successful journey on the whole. These little successes will help us grow, learn, develop skills, and abilities, making the traveler the person we would like to be. This is very important because life continues to throw challenges our way. We have the choice to be defined by tragedy or rise above it. Sometimes we will need assistance, knowledge, or belief that we can move forward. Otherwise, we have the skills and need to apply them. As we continue to travel on our road, we will get stronger, better, and gain self-esteem. That will be an inspiration to our families, children, friends, and others who look up to us. That will help them evolve into resilient individuals. This journey we take will have far-reaching ripples in the world around us. It will take time and patience, but every journey begins with a single step.   

Dedication

This Article is dedicated to my son, the 5-year-old child in the story. He saved the life of my father and taught me this lesson; I have shared it with you. Look for the children, parents, and friends around you who can motivate you on your journey.   

 

~ Raymond S Gulyas

 

 For some research, I have gone through:

Mayo Clinic

What is Resiliency - In Action

What creates Resiliency - Psychology Today

 

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