Resilience Revisited

What is resilience?  Here’s one DEFINITION -

re·sil·ience

noun

noun: resiliency

1.   the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

"the often remarkable resilience of so many British institutions"

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

"nylon is excellent in wearability and resilience"

Current theorists suggest that this capacity to be resilient is a big deal and is an essential skill set that folks interested in recovery need in order to find their way back to a healthier, happier and more authentically ‘them’ way of life.  

Personally, I think we all need it.  I particularly love this idea of “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape”.  This concept has amazing applications for not only the world of recovery but for anyone interested in building a life worth living.

In the olden days when I was learning such things, my professors taught me that the brain was NOT particularly resilient.  Their theory was that it didn’t regenerate. They were wrong.

Today we know better so we can do better.  We know that a messed up brain can heal.  New pathways can be formed. This is good news for folks who struggle with addiction because it is fundamentally an organic brain disease.  But all of us can benefit from learning about how to maintain brain health and repair it when necessary!

So here’s the good news - through resiliency work, we are exercising our bodies and our brains in ways that repair the damage done to our noggins by trauma, substance abuse and other brain damaging conditions.  Want to know how? Stay tuned!