WOW: Resilience - Monday

A quick refresher: 

Resilience:

re·sil·ience

rəˈzilyəns/

noun

noun: resilience; plural noun: resiliences

1. 1. 

   the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.

   "nylon is excellent in wearability and resilience"
2. 2. 

   the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

   "the often remarkable resilience of so many British institutions"

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   Even as recent as last year (2014 was just a few months ago!), I have struggled through periods of numbness.  Complete disconnect. Going through the motions.  Emotional shut-down. 

   
   

   I imagine it's fairly safe to say we all have.  Because when life hands you a series of challenges and problems all in a row, it can become very overwhelming very quickly.  And I know for myself, when that happens, my default response is to try to "power through".  

   
   

   Overwhelmed = Steamroller.

   
   

   In general, I've always been guilty of locking down and shutting out so that I can tackle the problem without any distraction. 

   
   

   But what I'm slowly learning, is that the successful outcome when I use that approach oftentimes doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment.  Because I shut down my emotional responses and never allowed myself to participate in the grief or fear or desperation, the success feels hollow.  There's no thrill of "Aha, I made it through that!". Just a dull sense of another thing taken care of.

   
   

   Talk about a hollow victory!

   
   

   So slowly… ever so slowly… I'm learning to give in a bit and allow the problems that arise to mold me.  By letting go of some of the strength that I was so dependent on, I've been surprised to realize I'm becoming stronger. 

   
   

   What I'm in the process of learning, is how to allow myself to remain emotionally invested in a problem until I work out a solution.  What I'm in the process of learning, is how to grow through it.