When your child faces challenges, does he bend or break?
Resilience is the ability to cope with change, worry, pressure, and unexpected events. The word comes from the Latin resilio, meaning to “jump back.” Picture resilience as a tree in a storm, whose branches bend rather than break.
We all experience tough times. We make mistakes or have to deal with sadness and stress. Resilience helps people to cope, and bounce back faster. Using self-talk helps resilience, e.g., if you find something hard or you’ve made a mistake, instead of reflecting I can’t do this, tell yourself, I can’t do this yet.
Rabbi Paysach Krohn — who later became a world-famous mohel — first started practicing as a young unmarried man. Not surprisingly, there was little call for the services of this newbie 21-year-old mohel. He is forever grateful to his mother who, when he would arrive home from work every day and ask hopefully, “Did anyone call for me?” would reply, “Not yet.”
Everybody has different levels of resilience that can change in different situations. But it’s important to remember that resilience is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved.
Create a free account to keep reading.
