Friend: “Are you okay?”
You: “No, but I will be.”
Not feeling “Strong” is not being “Weak”
Has someone ever used the term ‘weak’ to describe you? Though we all experience moments of weakness at some point or another, the negative connotation of “being weak” often makes us hesitant of displaying feelings of vulnerability. No, there isn’t anything wrong with being or feeling strong, and sometimes it is what helps us manage difficult situations, but what about when we aren’t strong, yet we manage to survive anyways? That’s not dumb luck. Resiliency allows us to embrace vulnerability, while experiencing the best and worst moments in life, by allowing us to consider our options, seek help when we need to a not put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to do it with a forced smile on our faces. While resiliency teaches you to keep going, the false idea of feeling strong at all times can lead to serious meltdowns and damage to self-esteem.
You didn’t start this fight, but you can finish it
To be resilient means to withstand challenges and overcome them while you keep moving forward. It means getting knocked down, sometimes struggling to get up, but looking around from the ground for something to help you off the ground. This is the reality of life; it is inevitable that we will face conditions that we feel is aiming to break us but true strength is not measured by your ability to fake that it isn’t difficult for the people around you, rather in your confidence that you are capable of coming out on the other side.
Resilience is like running a marathon (not that I would EVER do that, but follow me). You can practice for months or years to prepare for a marathon, and when the day comes, your body doesn’t want to cooperate. Maybe you are nervous, maybe you received very undesirable news the night before…for whatever reason, all of your hard work is going to go down the drain if you don’t get out there. So, despite your mind, heart, or body not being in tip-top shape, you go anyways. Maybe you can’t run…you walk, but whatever you do, you finish.
No, you may not have had the experience you would have liked, maybe you are a little down that there were so many barriers to you enjoying the benefits of your hard work…but you finished. You can at least be proud of that. You have all of the knowledge of why things didn’t go as planned. You can’t control that, but you could and DID control what you were going to do despite those barriers.
To be continued.