Integrated beings

How do we cope with stressful and difficult situations? Becoming more resilient is one answer. What do we mean by resilience? Resilience relates to strength, but is not synonymous. Resilience is about bending, not breaking. It is about finding inner strength while maintaining the ability to bend.

When we study resilience, we need to consider its physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. These four are tightly integrated. We cannot understand one apart from the other. Resilience is a highly integrated phenomenon.

Interestingly, many authors (secular and non-secular) think there is special relevance to the spiritual dimension (by some called ‘our ultimate purpose’ or the ‘big why’) as it helps to integrate the others. We are holistic beings in whom all these dimensions are interwoven completely.

A key passage in the Bible, known as the Great Commandment, reflects this: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”(Mark 12:30, echoing Deuteronomy 6:5). To gloss over the highly integrated nature of our being would be a serious mistake.

To study the integrated nature of resilience in more detail, I warmly recommend The Power of Full Engagement, a landmark publication on energy management, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (2009). Resilience, however, has its limitations.

In this blog (and in my upcoming book) I will reflect on this in more detail. I will also discuss top-range resilience (anti-fragility) and Christilience, which I consider the ultimate form of inner strength. Watch this space.