Last week’s blog touched on the topic of resilience. On my bookshelf, I counted six books about this topic. One of the best is:
A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald
He recommends respecting the power of memories to build resilience. He describes how to organize them for our learning.
Key people who have influenced us, for good or ill
Major ideas that have guided us, noble or not.
Critical events that have changed us, happy or sad.
This can be done by dividing our lives into blocks of time by our ages: 0-5 years, 6 to 13, 14 to 18 and so on. By adding locations, such as homes lived in, places visited, etc, the memories will flow more readily.
My observation over the years seems to show that people cannot be truly resilient if they have not processed the pain of their pasts. Someone said “We cannot go forward until we have gone backwards. Time does not heal; it conceals.”
And by also listing positive people, lessons, and events we form a secure foundation with which to press on into the future.
There are many other factors in developing resilience…stay tuned for next week’s blog.
