Spiritual Resilience
What is the definition of Resilience? The online dictionary definition is, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; mental toughness, or the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
While contemplating those two definitions from a spiritual perspective, I had a sense that each of them was focusing on the different aspects of who we are: the physical human part and the beingness, or the soul. Yet, applying just one of those strategies, exclusive of the other, is bound to create inconsistency and an inability to sustain our desired resiliency. Why?
I think it is because in the first definition, we are utilizing our mind in order to enact our ability to bounce back from our challenges. The ego, of course, takes up residence in our minds so it may employ fear tactics to persuade us to push away our adversities and refuse to face them. That may help temporarily, but not in the long term. Our adversities and even our adversaries come into our lives in order to teach us something so that our souls can evolve.
If we push away a difficulty because the mind can’t handle the thought of dealing with it, it will come back in a different form, yet carrying with it the same lesson. It we again use our mind’s toughness to push that one away the cycle will continue, and our suffering may seem endless. The only way to break the cycle is to turn and face the fear and ask our team of light why the person or circumstance came into our lives. What are we supposed to learn from the pain and cyclical, self-manifested suffering?
My interpretation of the second definition, from a spiritual perspective, is that it is speaking about energy. Energy is elastic and can be shaped and reshaped but never destroyed. Everything, both here and in the spirit world, is made up of energy. Our soul is pure energy and light with a particular energetic configuration that shapes who we are as a soul and delineates what our spiritual purpose is. Maintaining that configuration of energy is crucial in maintaining the health and wholeness of the one energy that unites all of us to each other.
Not employing the wisdom and clarity of our souls, time after time, when attempting to bounce back from continued adversity, can cause a break in our psyche that we may not be able to understand from a physical or medical perspective. Our ability to maintain our mental toughness can become exhausting as one adversity after another, rains down upon our lives. A soul that has trouble merging with its human counterpart may get caught up in the drama and forget who it is. Doing so for even one, but more likely for a number of lifetimes can alter the configuration of the soul’s energy and become a source of darkened light within the matrix of the One. The soul’s connection to the Divine creator will likely be weakened by its inability to merge with the physical form it inhabits, and it can thus feel a sense of being lost and unable to find its way back home. This can be a recipe for a deeply painful and sorrowful life.
The good news is that souls again, are made of energy. Each one can indefinitely maintain its elasticity so that any altered configuration of energy can reshape itself with spiritual awakening and a remembrance of the truth of who it is and why it came here. The point of power is always in the present moment. What does that mean? It means that no matter how young or old we are, or we where we find ourselves on the pathway of our lives, we can awaken, reconnect with our beautiful souls, and take parental control, if you will, of our fearful and drama-addicted ego.
Again, the ego is not a demon that we must defeat or destroy. It is simply part of the human experience. It is more likened to a frightened child than an evil foe. By accepting, that it is only trying to protect us by shielding us from our challenges, we can learn to treat that part of us with compassion and strength. We can explain to our overactive, imaginative ego-mind that its resistance to the entirety of life, with all the slings and arrows, as well as joys and pleasures, will most likely result in our inability to evolve. At that point, it would be best to ask our confused ego to go take a nice long nap and assure it that we have everything under control.
So how can we strengthen our resiliency so that we can continue to bounce back, as quickly as possible, from our challenges. I believe the only way to accomplish this is simply through awareness and present moment mindfulness. What does that mean? It means that when an adversity suddenly materializes, or unexpectedly crashes headfirst into our lives, and our ego starts screaming in fear, we stay right where we are, in the seat of our soul. We take a deep breath and perhaps, whisper a silent prayer for help and assistance to stay the course and stay calm.
This doesn’t mean we can’t have a moment or two, or many of anguished tears and deep sorrow. We can! We are human and honoring our humanness is an act of self-love and acceptance. Yet, even in the midst of our pain we can still stay present and aware of where we are and, most importantly, who we are. We are not the adversity! We are the awareness that is aware of it and is observing it from a higher spiritual perspective. It may take some time for the heightened emotions to soften and even out, but eventually they will. In the meantime, we are still conscious and aware that staying with the experience is the only way that will allow us to emerge from it more evolved and enlightened than we were before it came.
So, to sum it all up, spiritual resiliency is the ability to utilize the power of our mindful positive thoughts, not the negative hysterical ego, as well as the wisdom of our soul and the guidance from God and our team of light whenever challenges arise, so that we can bounce back more quickly. When we do, our spiritual resiliency grows stronger.
This intentional and mindful cooperation between our human part and our spiritual part will ensure that our adversities, in retrospect or hopefully as they unfold, will be viewed as treasures for our souls. When we peel away the layers of emotional suffering, like layers of an onion, we uncover those treasures which of course are the lessons we have discovered. Each lesson we learn allows us to ascend higher on our soul’s evolutionary journey. The more our consciousness evolves personally, the more we can make a positive difference in the evolution of the consciousness of all souls everywhere. Perhaps then, we will bring God’s peace to our magnificent world.
As that beautiful song written by Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller goes,
“Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be …