Sunday, July 23, 2017

Resilience. My best friend.



Resilience has been a rejuvenating concept for me in recent months. When I think of resilience I think of flexibility.  Life with MS has thrown many unexpected situations into my world.  Resilience is that solid framework I build coping mechanisms upon. Being resilient allows rom for the flexibility to modulate response.

Resilience means seeing a way through difficulty, not insisting on having a specific outcome. And while I believe that even the most difficult circumstances have positive elements, I am not encouraging resilience if, emotionally, I depend on all outcomes being positive.

Resilience has kept humankind on the planet.  Despite humanity's proclivity for self-destruction, humans continue to survive.  Need I say that I hope this trend continues given that the ability to self destruct has become so readily available.

But on a more personal level, I know I must be resilient in the simple act of living day-to-day.  I never know how I may start the day when I wake up in the morning. What tools will I need from my survival kit?  And if the bottom starts to fall out, what can I do to redeem the day?  How do I manage to take care of my needs in the moment?

MS is a fickle companion. Some days it ignores me and other days it demands my full attention.  But resilience is like a best friend with no other agenda than to keep me afloat. I try to find victories in the simple things. Playing with the cat. Watching baseball (okay, no guaranteed victories there). Popcorn and a movie. Pausing to watch the sunrise.