What is Resilience?

What is resilience?

Here at True Balance Karate, we have a social and emotional learning program called True Character. I’m Master H, owner and chief instructor here at the studio. And together we’ve developed this curriculum to best meet the needs of our youngest student, who is five, and our oldest student who is 85.

Defining Resilience

And this month we are talking about resilience. We’re talking about how when life pushes us down, we bounce back up. We’re talking about how we can learn and grow, but learning and growing doesn’t happen in our comfort zone. It happens when we push ourselves out of our comfort zone.

We’re talking about how we all have difficulties. We all have frustrations. We all feel a sense of failure at times. We all have to figure out how to cope with something. We all are going to get scared or angry or upset or any of those negative feelings. And it’s when we have those feelings that we get to practice our resilience the most. We get to learn, we get to grow, we get to bounce back. We get to have a better understanding of ourselves in those kinds of situations. And that’s when we get to practice our resilience the most.

And resilience is a similar attitude to our determination. It’s that “I can do it” attitude. It’s that belief in ourselves along the way. It’s not giving in to stinking thinking, but giving ourselves a chance to remind ourselves how to talk positively to ourselves. How to give ourselves an, “I can do it” attitude. How to remind ourselves of all the things that we are capable of doing.

Demonstrating Resilience

And so, as we go through this month talking about resilience, we’re going to talk about how to use resilience to solve our problems. We are going to talk about how we can demonstrate resilience, how do we stand, what do we say, where do we go, those kinds of things. And then we’re going to talk about how we all are going to need a motto, some kind of verbiage to help us remember to use our resilience and put it into practice.

And sometimes that’ll change. Sometimes that’ll be the same, just depends on the situation in front of us. Because at the end of the day, when we’re practicing our resilience, we are all going to face adversity at some point. We are all going to be faced with a problem that feels insurmountable. We are all going to be faced with something that is really going to push us.

And it’s at that moment in time when we dig deep and we ask for help or write out a plan or figure out how we’re going to solve it, that we get to learn and grow and experience things in a new way and in a new light. And that is the key to using our resilience. And I can’t wait to talk to you more about resilience this month.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the mat!

True Balance Karate was founded in 2012 by Master Sue and Paul Helsdon.

We offer kids karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up. These lessons are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need — specialized for their age group — for school excellence and later success in life.

Our adult martial arts training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay) in shape, or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 630-663-2000. You can also contact us here.