6 Pillars of Resiliency
Resiliency isn't your ability to push through the demands of your day. Resiliency is having different tools you can reach for when you need them, and knowing which one the moment calls for. It's a range you can draw from, not a checklist to finish. Resiliency is about restoring yourself to baseline, not using willpower to white knuckle your way through long-term stress.
These are the six areas of resiliency that I use to think through treatments, coaching, and recommendations. You can use the same pillars to notice where you're already steady and where you could cultivate more resources! The examples are just that: examples. Brainstorm things that fit your life and capacity under each category.
Energy & Rhythm
How you use, restore, and pace your energy across the day, the week, and the year.
Consistent sleep and wake times, rest built into the week, catching yourself before depletion, letting your pace shift with the seasons.
Food & Drink
What and how you eat and drink, in ways that suit your body, your patterns, and the season.
Warmer food when it turns cold, eating with attention instead of on autopilot, learning what nourishes you specifically rather than what's "healthy" in general.
Movement & Breath
Moving in ways that build you up rather than wear you down, and using breath to restore your nervous system.
A daily walk, strength training that fits your current stage of life, a few slow breaths in the middle of the day, movement that leaves you steadier instead of drained. Meditation, qi gong, etc.
Connection & Purpose
Your sense of belonging to people, to place, and to something larger than yourself.
Tending the relationships that matter most, community involvement, work that means something to you, knowing what gives your life purpose.
Nature
Time spent in and with the natural world, scaled to whatever your body can offer that day.
A walk that isn't for exercise, garden time, watching the birds, following one tree through the seasons, tending a house plant, or just noticing the weather.
Reflection
An inner practice that helps you notice, process, and make sense of your life.
Journaling, meditation, contemplative reading, prayer, quiet time you look forward to, a walk without your phone.
This framework grew out of yang sheng practices, or the classical Chinese medicine practices of nourishing life, and out of what current research understands about resilience: that it's less about how much you can withstand and more about how flexibly you can respond.
You won't necessarily have a practice in all six categories, but that isn't the goal. The goal is having enough different tools, in enough different places, so you can use them to respond differently in different situations. Often the areas you're already strong in or enjoy are the best place to start, and then you can grow new skills from there!
And, if you'd like help figuring out where to begin - that's what we do together in Resiliency Coaching!