A Response to Resilience

On a journey to redefine what it means to be resilient.

Aren’t you tired? How long have you been carrying all the weight of those around you on your back? Put down the expectations. Release your fears and your worries and your doubts. You’re allowed to let go. Today, all you need to be is enough for yourself. 

Resilience is a necessary human trait as it allows a person to overcame periods of difficulty and fear by accessing inner strength without becoming overwhelmed. In some ways, we must all learn how to persist. However, resilience also has the capacity to hold us in. We become defined by our own resilience. We introduce ourselves as it before saying our own name. What happens when all we’ve been doing is persisting? 

This question has been bouncing in mind over the past few months and years. I used to think being strong meant how well I could hold my emotions in or how easy it was to break myself into pieces for others. Whenever asked for an adjective to describe myself, resilient or empathetic were usually a top choice. I realized though I had not mastered withstanding with myself nor had I mastered self-empathy. I mastered withdrawing. 

This is your invitation to release and return to yourself. 

What have you been carrying? What is weighing you down? 

What does surrender mean to you?