Building resilience
Life is unpredictable. Sometimes it feels good and easy, while other times it can feel painful, hard and lonely. The word ‘resilience’ means to recoil, spring back and have elasticity. It refers to the psychological strength which helps us navigate and bounce back from hardship. Resilience isn’t just about our ability to survive adversity, however. It refers to the set of characteristics that allow us to gain wisdom, a sense of achievement and self-esteem from having done so. It’s about how we cope, survive, and hopefully thrive, grow and flourish as we encounter the inevitable ups and downs of life.
It’s important to stress that resilience can be learnt. I am living testament to this. As a child, I experienced abuse and felt scared, vulnerable and that I was never good enough. I married young and had two beautiful children, but unfortunately became the victim of domestic abuse. As a result of this, my self-esteem was incredibly low. I felt my life was worthless and the world would be
