The Resilience Quotient: How to Survive All That Is Coming

Jade Helm forces are consuming America. The economy is verge of collapse with our 18+ trillion dollar deficit, our 240 trillion dollar unfunded and mandated liabilities (e.g. social security) and we have had the bankers debt passed on to us and it totals a whopping $1.5 quadrillion dollar debt. America is sinking into the extreme depths of moral depravity. Government corruption is the norm, instead of the exception. There is plenty of material that can cause anyone to give up hope and passively accept what is coming. But it does not have to be that way.

Now, more than ever before it is critical to develop a sense of resilience which will allow us to flourish through times of unimaginable horror.

How to Survive and Flourish Through the Stinky Side of Life

I have a large garden, plants and beautiful trees in my backyard at my country home. There always comes the time when we have the unpleasant task putting mulch on our growing areas. Mulch is poop, fertilizer if you will.

For a couple of days following spreading of the mulch, it really stinks up the backyard and it is hard to walk out back without experiencing an almost nauseating feeling. Yet, in a couple of weeks, we see plant growth that is a beautiful sight to behold and the smell has subsided. The moral of the story is that many times in life we have to go through the stinky poop in order to come out the other side tougher, more skillful, wiser, full of hope and much more resilient.

Resilience is one of the keys to living an abundant life. I have found that God uses the mulch in our lives to help us grow and to prepare for what he has in store for you. The to surviving the mulch, the stinky poop of life, is to develop a strong sense of resilience. Having a well-defined sense of resilience is one of the building blocks to a successful life.

Psalm 23:4 captures much of what it means to develop a sense of resilience as the Bible proclaims, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”…

This is the beginning of a series on how we can survive the all the excrement that the world brings to our doorstep.

Resilience in part, is about acquiring a learned set of skills which promote resilience and ultimately person success.

University of Pennsylvania Study

Having a non-resilient attitude based upon negativity and other counterproductive personality traits can actually shorten your life.

A longitudinal study has found that hopelessness and depression are each predictors of coronary heart disease (CHD). When adjusted for level of depression, hopelessness was an independent predictor of CHD. However, when adjusted for level of hopelessness, depression was not an independent predictor of CHD.

This study was the first of its kind to explore depression and hopelessness as individual predictors as long as 18 years out.

Hopelessness occurs often in severe depression, but it is not recognized as a symptom of depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  Hopelessness, therefore, might be distinct from depression in its associations with CHD.

Researchers suggested future studies to investigate whether reducing hopelessness, compared with reducing depressive symptoms, would lead to fewer incidents of heart attack.

Coronary heart disease including heart attack is the leading cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030, depression and CHD will rank globally as two of the three most disabling conditions, surpassed only by HIV/AIDS.

What the world needs is not another pill, the world needs to develop a sense of resilience. All you have to do is identify the traits of resilience and then systematically practice incorporating this trait into your daily routine and your overall outlook on life.

Connecting the Dots

My thesis was about the essential elements of resilience. What I discovered was that people that a spirit of resilience have a purpose in life with clearly defined goals and they develop a sense of hope which helps them attain these goals.

In short, you do not have to fall victim to life’s setbacks. Here are a couple of tips:

1. In part, people who have hope have faith in their ability to obtain their goals. One technique is to keep a journal in which they write down only the good things that are happening to them. It refocuses their mind away from any self-doubt and ongoing trauma which can serve to block their meaning and purpose in life. Yes, the bad things happen, but we march along towards our goal because we keep eye on the ball so to speak. When we come to understand and have faith in the belief that God does have a plan for our lives, we are less likely to let the mulch in our lives throw us off of our life’s path. When we know our purpose, the people that leave us, the governments that steal from us and abuse us and lovers that cheat on us become the “fertilizer” in our life.  And in time their stink subsides and we have moved onto greener pastures prepared for us by our God.

2. Develop and attitude of gratitude. Say “thank you”, often. Train yourself to recognize all the kind things that people do you for you that we currently take for granted. Take the time to acknowledge our blessings by thanking people and thanking the creator.

We live in a universe of abundance and we attract into our lives where we let our minds dwell. If we focus on our gifts, we attract more abundance in our lives because we are mentally prepared to accept it. If we only focus on what we do not have, we attract more of what we do not want in our lives.

Proverbs 23:7King James Version (KJV)

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…

This Biblical phrase has many applications but it speaks to having the right mental attitude.

Conclusion

This is the first in a series on developing a sense of resilience on surviving whatever comes our way. Unlike Big Pharma, which wants to make money by medicating you to blunt the feelings of depression and hopelessness which serve as an impediment to the success that we are supposed to enjoy in our human journey, resilience is free. The only cost is that we must rehearse BEING the resilient traits that you will learn about in this column in the coming weeks where I will isolate a trait associated with resilience along with how we all can acquire that trait.

Credit to Common Sense