You Can Build Resilience for Life
Learn How to Overcome
On Christmas, I wrote about Holy Hell —Mary and Joseph fleeing violence, escaping infanticide.?
For January 6th, I want to write about Epiphany —the revelation to three Magi visiting the holy family in Bethlehem, and the anniversary of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River.?
January 6th also marks the three-year anniversary of a failed insurrection in Washington, DC.?
These are before-and-after moments one never forgets.?
The question is, what do we do with a wake-up call??
When I wrote “Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis,” I described how to move from victim to survivor to thriver, offering a recipe for resilience:?
1. Face Facts:?Misinformation is running rampant . It may seem like spreading the truth in the face of lies is impossible. But facts matter. When we each commit to understanding others or showing empathy, we can change one person’s mind on one thing. Maybe we can change the world one fact and one person at a time.
2. Choose Life: Deaths by suicide are at record levels . This crisis deserves a concerted societal response. It’s clear that choosing to live one day at a time helps us keep faith and hope alive. Recent research found that planned social activities improved mental health, and performing random acts of kindness helped even more.
3. Reach Out: 17% of US adults are experiencing significant loneliness. Loneliness puts us at risk of poor physical and mental health. We have to reach out to those around us who may be experiencing this epidemic. When we get together to share meals, laughter, and meaning, we heal—literally .
4. Get Moving: All our remote jobs mean we often sit in one space, staring at a screen for hours at a time. It’s killing us . When we get outside , go for a walk , our heart rates lower, our pain improves, and we start to feel more at peace.
5. Give Back: 10.3 million more people in the US experienced food insecurity in 2022 than in 2021, and soup kitchen volunteering is at its lowest level since the turn of the century. But rates of informal giving are rising . We can all help a neighbor get groceries or invite someone going through a difficult time for coffee or dinner. Every time we step up or pay it forward, we make a difference.
When we face before-and-after moments, when life feels overwhelming, it’s important to act, to take at least one of these five steps forward each day.
Other good resources and ideas…
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Hold Space for Hope
Without hope, we get stuck. A dark void can suck us in. We think: It hasn’t changed yet, so it never will. The challenge is too big. I’ll probably fail. Without hope, we freeze in fear, doubt, and resignation. I forget who said F.E.A.R. can just be False. Evidence. Appearing. Real. Or it can be that we are actually facing a real attack. We need to discern, face facts, and then take steps to build a violence-free world with others. And this means we need to hold on to hope. Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (2004) is a timeless reminder of the fact that “hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.”?
Let It Go
As we make plans to turn hope into action in 2024, take a moment to sit quietly and just think of something specific that you’re grateful for. Something that can help ground you in the year ahead, even as you encounter things that will upset your serenity or threaten to throw you off balance.?
Think of how you can build your personal resilience, facing facts and getting in shape for life.?
We don’t always need to focus on being “productive.” Sometimes it’s better to sit quietly and do nothing but hold space in the present for the future.?
A sloth holds secrets for life. And bears hibernate in winter.?
How will you prepare for the season to come by doing less??
Let’s start the year by relaxing, exhaling. Then we may breathe more freely in 2024.?
The Root of It with Jerry White is a newsletter intended to spur readers to disrupt violence and promote healing in our communities. If you know a friend or colleague who would appreciate this newsletter, please consider forwarding it. That way, we can all become part of the cure.
You can follow along with URI’s work on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and Twitter , or learn more about URI by visiting www.uri.org/ . #WePreventViolence