What It Really Means to Be Resilient
Three lessons on how to handle adversity while feeling your feelings
I used to think resilience was a tool I just didn’t have. I can be an easy crier. How can one cry frequently and also be resilient? When we think of resilience, we imagine stoic faces, superhero power poses, and triumphant fists in the air. If we do a Google image search for “resilience,” a person shedding tears certainly does not come up.
I don’t think that anymore. It’s a realization that has come from time and age more than any single aha moment, but I know now that — much like how courage is not the absence of fear — resilience is neither emotionless indifference nor unrelenting positivity in the face of challenges. Emotions and resilience can coexist.
When I need to remember that, I turn to a few of my favorite Japanese proverbs. Here are a few of the sayings that have helped me reconsider what resilience looks like, illustrated — why not? — by monkeys on trees.
‘Even monkeys fall from trees’
猿も木から落ちる
