Rebound from adversity How to grow in the face of difficulties? by Monica Garza

Have you ever seen how a blown glass figure is made? It is a very particular process. At first the craftsman receives his raw material (glass) shattered; then heats that glass until it melts, using ovens with extremely high temperatures to do so; Since the glass is red hot, the craftsman takes it with tongs and begins to blow, with this, the glass begins to take a specific shape; Finally, color and even texture are added to obtain the piece that the artisan had in mind. This story helps us see how glass after a transformation process ends up being the same glass, but now it is a very beautiful piece, which has a purpose and most important of all: It is still the same glass!

That is resilience: it is the ability we have as human beings to overcome adversity, learn something and even apply what we learned. It comes from the Latin term resist which means to rebound or return. In more psychological terms, it is that ability that we have as human beings to adapt to adversities, changes or any situation that happens in our lives.

In my professional practice I have seen how we generally expect or think that being resilient means being happy or no longer suffering, however, being resilient goes much further! Being resilient means that despite feeling bad, sad, frustrated or anxious, we can move forward.

But, before moving forward, if I want to make something clear: all of us as human beings are resilient, we all have this capacity with the simple act of breathing.

In fact, it has been shown that being resilient is not an extraordinary act, but rather it is more common and ordinary than we believe. In various investigations it has been found that it is more likely that a person who is going through a difficult situation or trauma will have post-traumatic growth and not that they will develop a disorder due to that situation. Interesting, isn't it? Can you think of someone you know who, after going through a difficult situation, has moved towards their best version?

I want to share with you some behaviors that we can adopt to develop our resilience. A resilient person seeks the support of others, looks for those people who are their support, I like to tell them their indispensable ones, those people who are always there for us.

A resilient person also trusts in their possibilities and abilities; has hope that the future will be better (perhaps we do not know or cannot imagine how, but we know that we can and we are discovering the paths that lead us to that better future); A resilient person is tenacious, persistent and creative. What other skills or abilities do you think a person who is resilient has?

Since March 2020, the world has experienced an event that made our resilience skyrocket and become more potent. In a short time we managed to adapt, we managed to find a way to go out to work safely or work from home; We experience new ways of socializing, we even discover new ways to say goodbye to our acquaintances and loved ones who have gone ahead of us.

This pandemic awakened our resilience in us.

I recently read an interview with Malala Yousafzai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. In that interview she talked about how this pandemic taught us that we do not need to return to “normality” but rather that we need a “reset.” She used it in the context of caring for the environment; However, I found it interesting to link his comment to resilience.

When we go through something and we manage to adapt and learn from that situation, we are no longer as we were before, but rather we renew ourselves and experience growth that we did not have before.

In short, thanks to that capacity for resilience that we developed, we can say that we have grown.

That said, I invite you to grow, to look for those circumstances in your life that have impacted you and have brought you here. Reflect by asking yourself the following questions: when have I been resilient? How do I know I have been resilient? How can I contribute to the resilience of others?

But don't forget that the most important thing about all this is that, in one way or another, we are resilient! and if you need support, there is always someone who can accompany you on that path of resilience.