I’m Resilient. So Are You. And the World Should Know.

“Tell your story…” medium invites. Tell MY story. Hmm. I got to thinking as I examined the phrase, what IS my story?

I can’t share my entire story, because it’s enough to fill tens of thousands of pages. People just don’t have time for that. Or patience.

So, I decided to sum up my story into one word. Unexpectedly, resilience came to mind.

You see, my ex-therapist always used to say to me, “You are so resilient.” It took me years to finally believe those four words. Resilient? Nah, not really. I just survive. I just go day to do because I have too.

“But you don’t have too,” she’d say. “You make conscious choices everyday that shape everything about who you are and who you’ll become. And you are resilient.”

You know that feeling you get when someone tells you something very nice about yourself, and you hear it for the first time and think…you gotta be fucking kidding me. She is nuts. She knows all of these things about me and snippets of my life and mistakes and she comes up with resilient? She’s gotta be blowing smoke up my ass for sure.

After many months, probably years of this phrase bouncing around in my skull I finally brought it into the forefront of my mind one day and really scrutinized it. It finally clicked. (Thank you, T Momma!) I AM Resilient.

So why for years did I deny or avoid this simple reality? Simple: it forced me to recognize how awe-inspiring I really am and how scary that is. Say what, now?

Yes. I am. I am awe-inspiring. Yes, it’s scary sometimes realizing you have so much strength and power. I’m many things. I’m creative, intelligent, compassionate, caring, beautiful, loving, least of not: resilient.

Sometimes we all need a pat on the back. Most times what we don’t realize is that pat on the back that we need most is from ourselves.

That’s why recognizing our resilience is so important. Mine, yours, the collective resilience of us all: it’s vital to continuing on in the path of life. Recognizing our resilience opens us up to our inner confidence and screams out to our deepest rooted inner strength. Once we realize that we are indeed, so resilient, we realize the very reality that we can do anything. We can be anything. We can make the biggest difference in the universe if we’re persistent and resilient.

Once I realized my personal resilience, life changed. No matter what I face I know I will always make it through. I didn’t have that wonderful, affirming realization before.

Don’t ignore your resilience like I did for so long. Believe in it, believe in yourself. Own it. The fate of the very universe depends on it.