Resilience and The Art of Stillness: Taking It Slow in an Age of Acceleration

Wake up and start living! Are you on auto pilot, living each day as if it were the Groundhog Day movie? You are not alone. We were numb before COVID and now it is even worse. We are in a chronic state of uncertainty and without tools to navigate, it is harder to cope. The most resilient are the ones who have the tools to shift consciousness from old programming to new expanded horizons. Creating positive change now helps us move towards light so we can become everyday heroes.

There are many shadows right now: stress, anxiety, disappointment, unrest, tension and depression. If we can harness simple tools to cope, we can become more resilient. Happy people are healthier people. If you cannot change what is happening around you, you can change yourself and become empowered.

Here is a simple resilience guide to taking time to become happier and healthier right now. 

1. Maintain time every day to connect to others - Isolation and loneliness each day has the same effect as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes. A lack of interaction causes social skills to atrophy, we become awkward and weird. Writing a letter, a socially distanced chat, a phone call, a thoughtful text, these can all help us feel more connected.

2. Practice optimism - realizing one thing you are grateful right this very moment helps you immediately find happiness. Despite problems and set backs in life, if you stop and really think about it, we still have it pretty good. Find one small thing to be thankful for.

3. Coping skills - try thinking in opposites. Instead of fear guiding you, let the opposite happen. Imagine a good outcome versus a bad one. Feels pretty good right?

4. Find flexibility - cognitive and emotional flexibility help us when things do not go the way we expected them to. Be curious to new things, maybe they are happening for a reason? Surprises can often be a blessing, you take another path and it makes all the difference.

5. Move into stillness - resting, basically time, heals all trauma. Actually taking time to just be, no agenda, no goal, no judgement, just holding space for yourself. We all need more of that. You do not have to just sit there, you just have to remember what it was like when you were little and you could really savor a moment, when you could be in flow and be absorbed in a thought, or simply float through a period of time. 

I will leave you with one last thought: when you take the time to be still and learn some resilience, your moral compass and spiritual beliefs will become more evident. You already know inside what you want and what you need, you just can't hear it. When you slow down, release digital distractions and the chatter in your mind, your inner you can be heard and felt. Embrace you, take it slow and enjoy the benefits of becoming a happier more resilient person. The world needs this right now.