Resilience

Looking across Windemere to Langdale

Some good conversations recently about 'resilience', our capacity to 'bounce back', to recover quickly. Many businesses and public sector organisations have resilience strategies and plans in place to  enable services to continue when there has been a problem. Evidence shows that more than 50% of those companies without a plan will fail in the year after a problem.

You might wonder what this has to do with you? Simple really, what is your 'bounce back' strategy? How will you cope when (not if!) something goes wrong?

It could be the 'Resilience of Youth', we feel young, fit, able to take on the world, and so what if a plan doesn't work, we just do something else.

Or maybe it is the 'Resilience of Wisdom', the advantage of being an 'elder'. We've been there, done that, we know nothing is permanent, everything constantly changes, things hurt now but we'll cope.

But mindfulness allows us to do more than cope. It allows us to thrive, to get more out of life, even when it can be a struggle. My resilience plan involves finding big views, like the one above in Cumbria. It means recognising the early warning signs (a key part of any resilience plan), knowing when you feel less comfortable, more vulnerable or simply just a bit 'low'.

The key advantage of the 'naturally mindful' approach is that nature is all around us, we are part of nature, we don't need to dig out our 'resilience plan', we just have to be awake to our experience. Whether it is stroking a dog, smelling a flower, marvelling at the skein of geese flying overhead or simply appreciating the view, be in the moment. What is happening right now that we can appreciate?