Bounce Back
Build Resilience by Asking for More.
Resilience is a muscle.
Muscle builds when you create small tears in healthy tissue, which heal stronger. It’s called hypertrophy. Your body builds fibers by filling in the gaps between the tears with new muscle tissue.
So how to create small tears? Ask for hard feedback, show your thick skin, be willing to get uncomfortable. Demonstrate the kind of sharing you want by being honest with yourself and others. When the damage is purposeful, it can make you stronger. Honest feedback helps everyone improve.
But also, protect yourself. While you do that, also keep a grain of salt close at hand. Not everyone’s truth is your truth. You’re just trying to understand their perspective.
What about the tears that aren’t purposeful? Life these days is filled with controversy, divisions, incivility and unexpected setbacks. When the unfair or unexpected happens, protect yourself by respecting yourself. Lean into your support system, get enough of what you need (sleep, sun, physical activity, friend time, alone time, something else…).
It can help, too, to find the funny in your failures, and in the missteps that happen every day. My friend Robin collects terrible jokes, and tells them. A little levity goes a long way when the day is looking dark.
Sometimes you’re up. Sometimes you’re down. Know that you’re never alone on the trampoline. We are all here with you, just bouncing around.
