If we have learned anything during these difficult days, it is to work on our resilience. That capacity to resist, to come out stronger from all adversity that we have to live with, is always important, and essential in crises like the present one.
Some have seen the foundation of their lives shaken in a couple of months, and it is not easy to have enough strength to continue with the day to day. But, there are those who claim that circumstances like this are the perfect breeding ground for growth.
Reinventing ourselves among obstacles
In 2010, Dr. Mario Alonso Puig wrote “Reinventing Yourself: Your Second Chance”, a text that, although it was published a decade ago, is still of amazing relevance because the crisis generated by the coronavirus is a key moment for us to adapt to the obstacles and even come out stronger from it.
“Reinventing yourself is bringing out the greatness in you when you need it most”
Explained the doctor in the talk organised by the publishing house. And this is the point from which all those who want to make a change must start, their inner self. It is to look inside and know our virtues the key to enhance resilience and to cope with adversity.
But is it possible to reinvent oneself in the midst of the stressful situation we are experiencing? Dr. Mario Alonso Puig emphasizes the idea that in complicated situations we can bring out the best in ourselves:
“It is now the best time; when we move in a known world we do not need to reinvent ourselves, but not to fall asleep.
We must remember that our comfort zone is dangerous, if you stay there, even if you succeed you can fail, and having this in mind is very important”.
Self-knowledge as a key
Throughout the book, the writer and doctor talks about how it is essential to be aware of our own capabilities, for he says that
“beneath many of our deepest fears, there is no real inability to face them, but the conviction that we are incapable of doing so.
He reminds us throughout the pages that there are people who have an extraordinary capacity to endure in the face of adversity. That is why, these are the same people who recover earlier after passing a painful episode in their lives.
Knowing ourselves, working on that capacity of endurance, through our “reinvention”, is an essential growth mechanism. But, although it is very easy to explain, developing this resilience is not so easy, since, explains the doctor in the book, “when emotions such as fear or despair take hold of us, a real ‘brain hijack’ occurs”.
Avoiding the blockage
This blockage that we can experience, the professional pointed out during the talk, is due to the fact that “we have a lack of knowledge of human reality”.
“If we were aware of the resources we have, creativity, imagination, the capacity to feel and be passionate, we would not feel so much anxiety in the face of uncertain situations,
” he said, adding a powerful observation: “In moments of extreme complexity is where the ability to create is born.
In order to recognize these “resources” it is important not only to have a good opinion of ourselves, but also to be able to take care of ourselves.
The doctor explains that, our body is the unconscious, and therefore, when we take care of our body, we take care of our mind as well, and when we take care of the mind, we take care of our body. Our greatest enemy is ourselves, so it is important to “exercise compassion with ourselves.
“Be firm, but don’t be hard,” the doctor recommends.
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