A Resilient Body and Mind: What My Willow Tree Taught Me About Resilience
“Successful people don’t control events; they control their response to events.” — Dan Sullivan, The Gap and the Gain
My beautiful willow tree soars high above the urban neighbourhood in which I live. Autumn gifts her an amazing glowing yellow, a breathtaking vision when the wind and the willow dance.
One day in the summer, I heard a loud cracking sound as a very large branch from the tree broke off and fell, narrowly missing my garage. As I surveyed the twenty-plus feet of green that came down with the branch, I was devastated. What would it be like without her?
What I found out a week later from the arborist was that willow trees are very resilient. Even in its injured form, there was hope that my willow would recover.
It got me thinking: if my willow is resilient, how resilient am I? What does that even mean? What can I do to increase my resilience?
What Is Resilience?
Resilience is the capacity to withstand and/or recover from difficulties. It is the ability to bounce back or adapt to difficult and challenging experiences through flexibility and adjustment.
Resilience is a remarkable quality that can continue to develop throughout life. As we grow older, we face an array of physical, emotional, and social challenges, just like my century-old willow. Age does not automatically diminish our capacity for resilience; instead, our life experiences can give us valuable perspective and resources to draw upon.
The Six Domains of Resilience
A useful framework for exploring resilience comes from Boise State University. Its six domains of resilience include:
- Vision – Being able to look at the larger picture so that smaller things cause you less anxiety. A sense of purpose fits in here as well.
- Composure – The ability to regulate our emotions and remain calm can help us see situations from different points of view.
- Reasoning – This area helps with problem-solving, an important way of dealing with challenges.
- Health – Like so many things in life, nutrition, sleep, and exercise can support our ability to handle setbacks.
- Tenacity – Being persistent as we deal with challenges allows us to keep looking for solutions and move forward.
- Collaboration – Having networks and social support, even when they provide only moral support, can strengthen resilience. Our networks can also help us with reasoning, composure, and tenacity.
Resilient individuals still experience stress and emotional upheaval, but they may be better able to work through those experiences and return to a calmer state.
Resilience and Aging
One potential benefit of living a longer life is having accumulated experiences with challenges—personally, economically, and socially—that can give us greater perspective. We may be able to look at issues that seem all-encompassing with a perspective that comes from having navigated difficult experiences before.
Later life can be an ideal time to continue cultivating these qualities. It can also be a time when we need extra reserves of resilience as we experience the loss of friends and spouses or encounter new physical and life challenges. Check out blogs like Four Ways to Deal With the Loss of a Loved One to explore ways of finding resilience during difficult transitions.
My Willow: An Emblem of Resilience
Just as my willow has continued to grow as everything around her has changed, my goal is to use her as an emblem of resilience. Since the damaged willow limb has been resting on my driveway awaiting removal, it has grown a range of new shoots that only hint at her ability to regrow from the damaged stump.
THAT IS RESILIENCE!
