Nature teaches us about what it takes to survive in the world, if only we would listen. For instance, watching the snow fall, we cannot help but be impressed. This perfect snow clumps on the tree branches, building a forest of white. But the branches can only take so much wait. What happens when the snow becomes too much?
This is where nature’s amazing architecture comes into play. Nature has simple solution to the weight of the world – and it is one we can all learn from. When it becomes too much, the branch gently bends, relieving itself of the snow and it’s weight. The branch, we could say, is practicing resilience.
Nature has considered all the possibilities of life, and built in mechanism to ensure that things survive. It brings snow to the trees, and the trees bend to the weight of snow, allowing no real harm to come to them. Similarly, nature has built these same mechanisms into us. But we do not seem to always recognize or use them. And, one of these is something psychologists call resilience. This is the capacity to spring back to shape and recover from the difficulties that life throws us. Some of us are more resilient than others, but we all have reserves of resilience deep inside us.
Here are some ways we can tap it:
The more you know yourself, the better you understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie. If not, you are less able to handle stress or problems in life.
Some people waste a lot of time and energy complaining about unfairness in life. But often things are simply the way they are in life, and we may not be able to change it. Accepting this truth, and also that most feelings relating to unhappiness or obstacles in life are temporary, can go a long way to improving our ability to bounce back.
We need to be grateful for life’s gifts to us. Resilient people realize that things could always be worse. Things that we take for granted – food, clean water, shelter, internet access at our fingertips, are the things much of the world do not have. Also, stress caused by our impatience, coupled with needless haste and hurry, chips away at our overall happiness Again, being impatient reduces our ability to focus on what is really important in life.
Resilient people keep their minds open and flexible to new ideas or new ways, and try out new things – even those that they did not like in the past. Our tastes change, and learning to adapt and be flexible in life is a key component of resiliency.
Our close friends provide us a kind of a buffer against stress. It helps us to be able to share our trials and tribulations with those trusted souls who understand us best. Resilient people do not shun help — they accept it with open arms understanding that no one can overcome every problem on their own.
The common driving force behind resilient people is that they realize that every problem in life has a solution, even if it is not obvious at first. They do not just stress searching for solutions, but rather wisely tap their resources and social networks. Turning to nature, we can certainly be wiser and happier. So, follow nature and learn to bend and bounce back when faced with life’s setbacks.
