I wanted to tell you about four basic truths I use in my own life to help cultivate resilience.*
First, here is my definition of resilience:
Resilience is the skill that allows people to pursue their potential, to engage confidently in the growth process, to welcome challenge and adversity, and to flourish in all areas of their life.**
Many people equate resilience simply with an ability to bounce back from adversity.
However, I think resilience is a holistic virtue or capacity.
That’s because resilience helps us view ourselves and life in a particularly effective way.
Or, viewing ourselves and our life in a particular ways helps us be more resilient.
So, building resilience starts long before we face adversity.
Building resilience begins with the views we cultivate daily about ourselves and the world.
So, I want to tell you about four resilience- building truths that you can work on cultivating daily.
But first, I would like you to use your imagination with me to Think Like a Tree.
Thinking Like a Tree
Imagine that one day you are walking in a forest.
And suddenly you see a man looking up at the tree. As you approach the tree, you hear the man say,
Tree, I don’t know if you have what it takes to succeed. I am not sure you can grow branches and leaves and engage in photosynthesis.
You’re clearly not as good as the other trees in the forest at these things.
I just don’t think you’ve got what it takes to be a tree. I don’t know if you are worthy of being in this forest.
All paintings and drawings in this post by Shelly P. Johnson.
This is a very strange situation indeed. Now, some people might think that what is strange in this scenario is that a man is talking to a tree.
And perhaps that is so.
But consider that what is truly strange is that the man our imaginary scenario thinks that a tree doesn’t have what it takes to be a tree.
And he doubts that the tree is worthy to exist and grow in the forest.
Consider what an odd idea that is.
After all, trees have been growing branches and leaves and engaging in photosynthesis for thousands of years.
They have a type of internal power that drives them to life, growth, and the full expression of their biological powers.
In fact, trees have everything they need inside of them to become exactly what they are supposed to be.
They certainly don’t need to achieve some set of external standards to prove they are worthy.
And they don’t need to compete with trees around them.
Their only job is to develop, cultivate, and express the worth they already have inside of them.
And the more trees cultivate and express this worth, the more they express it in the world.
In doing so, they benefit themselves and everything else in the forest around them.
In fact, just by fully expressing their internal worth, trees provide shade, food, and shelter for everything around them.
And they photosynthesize and help to create clean air for everyone to breathe.
The same thing is true about everything else in nature as well.
For example, flowers don’t have to achieve or outperform the flowers around them to be worthy flowers.
They simply need to develop, cultivate, and express the worth they already possess.
The more they do so, the more they beautify and enrich everything and everyone around them.
So here is what we recognize already: Everything in nature has an internal worth, a potential.
And everything in nature also has an internal power that helps them express their worth.
As they do so, they enrich, strengthen, and beautify the world around them and everything in it.
And in fact, we recognize that everything in nature is an expression of an underlying power.
That power connects everything in nature and that helps it grow and express the powers unique to itself.
In fact, deep down, we understand four important truths about trees and everything in nature.
The Four Truths
Namely, we understand that trees are worthy, capable, connected, and called to adventure.
Here’s what I mean:
Worthy: Trees and everything else in nature possess intrinsic worth. (I will focus on trees for the sake of simplicity).
It is their special tree-ness, which is the unique characteristics they possess and bring into the world to make it more beautiful.
Capable: Trees are capable of expressing their tree-ness. It’s what they were born to do.
Connected: Trees are connected to the earth and sky and everything else in the forest.
Trees are nourished and helped through these connections, and they nourish and help other beings as well.
Called to Adventure: It’s a little strange to think of a tree being called to adventure, but it’s certainly true that they are.
Trees are meant to thrive and flourish; to express their beauty; to connect with all sorts of living things; and to experiences the beauty of the world while contributing to it.
Thriving, flourishing, expressing beauty, connecting, experiencing beauty: That’s an adventure.
Here’s Why I am Telling You This
These four truths about trees and everything else in nature are true about you and me, too.
That is, just like trees and everything else in nature, you and I are also worthy, capable, connected, and called to adventure.
Let’s examine each of these truths in relation to human beings.
One: We are worthy.
We possess intrinsic worth, and so does everyone else.
Just like trees possess a unique tree-ness that they express in the world and make it more beautiful, so does each human being.
We possess the special powers of love, reason, and imagination. This is our intrinsic worth.
The more we love and cultivate these powers.
As we do so, the more we express our unique human-ness in the world and make it more beautiful.
Two: We are capable.
We are capable of cultivating and expressing this worth.
If we possess intrinsic worth, that means we have some good inside of us that wants to grow and express itself.
That’s what we were born to do. We are capable.
Three: We are connected.
We are connected to ourselves and everyone else through the intrinsic worth we all possess.
Because we all possess this intrinsic worth, we are connected in a special and powerful way.
We don’t have to compete and prove we are more special than everyone else.
Rather, we realize that each of us have both a similar and special goal.
Our goal is to express our intrinsic goodness in our unique corner of the world.
In doing so, we make the world a more beautiful and wonderful for ourselves and everyone else.
Four: We are Called to Adventure.
We are here to express our worth together to make the world a more happy and beautiful place. This is our vocation.
And if it is true that we are worthy, capable, and connected, this means that life is a great adventure.
That’s because our purpose together as a human race is to express our worth into the world to make it a more beautiful, just, magical place for everyone.
This is our vocation or calling as human beings, and we’ve only just begun to realize our potential in this area.
The Four Truths and Resilience
You can probably see that the more we cultivate these Four Truths in our life, the more we cultivate resilience.
Here is my definition of resilience again:
Resilience is a skill that allows people to pursue their potential, to engage confidently in the growth process, to welcome challenge and adversity, and to flourish in all areas of their life.
Believing we are worthy, capable, connected, and called to adventure helps us be more resilient.
That’s because the more we believe the four basic truths, the more they give us the confidence to pursue our potential, grow, rise to challenges, handle adversity, and flourish.
That’s good news.
By the way, if you are interested in learning more about the Four Basic Truths, you might like this free course I developed on the subject: The Four Basic Truths.
Also, the Four Basic Truths help us understand our intrinsic worth. You might like to read more about intrinsic worth here: Understanding our Worth.
Lastly, sometimes when people learn bout the four basic truths, they wonder about the negative side of human beings. Because we all have a negative side. You can read more about that here: Dealing with Our Dark Side.
Here’s a book I am reading currently about resilience that I am enjoying:
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