Word for Wednesday: Resilience

“Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you.” Jeffrey Gitomer

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche

“The greater the force of your compassion, the greater your resilience in confronting hardships.” Dalai Lama

Defining Resilience: The Cambridge dictionary gives two main definitions for resilience: the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened; and the ability of a substance to return to its usual shape after being bent, stretched, or pressed.

Maya Angelou said this about resilience, “I’m not sure if resilience is ever achieved alone. Experience allows us to learn from example. But if we have someone who loves us-I don’t mean who indulges us, but who loves us enough to be on our side-then it’s easier to grow resilience, to grow belief in self, to grow self-esteem. And it’s self-esteem that allows a person to stand up.”

Elizabeth Edwards made this comment on resilience, “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”

And I once remarked that “When you encounter a path deemed impossible, your creativity will get you to the top. Likewise, when your disorder is now the obstacle, your resilience will carry you over the finish line.”

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” C.S. Lewis

“Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.” Yasmin Mogahed

Resilience in the Presence of Parkinson’s: Each one of you with Parkinson’s can give numerous examples of resilience overriding the punishing effects of Parkinson’s. You needed to try to recover what was taken away from the wrath expressed by Parkinson’s.

It is no fun living with Parkinson’s. However, your reaction to this disorder fuels the fire in your brain and body. Tenacity enables the breath in your lungs and blood in your veins to continue your life effort. Resilience provides the means to recover the happiness and love following Parkinson’s impact.

Resilience and Parkinson’s go hand-in-hand. Parkinson’s is an accumulating curse that grows slowly and is trying to dominate you. But your willpower, determination, and resilience prevent Parkinson’s from taking over completely. So stay the course, and follow your path. You will find strength in your capacity to resist and ultimately react to the challenge of Parkinson’s. Likewise, resilience will allow you to recover from the negativity of Parkinson’s.

“Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times. . . . Your ability to thrive depends, in the end, on your attitude to your life circumstances. Take everything in stride with grace, putting forth energy when it is needed, yet always staying calm inwardly.” Ping Fu