Resilience and Spirituality
Abstract
Through the course of researching and writing the paper some very interesting things about resilience and spirituality have been observed. While one would assume that a person that exhibits great faith would be very resilient, that is not always the case. Resilience comes from an inner strength that can be magnified by a strong faith. In order for a person to truly have a high level of resilience, they must also have a strong faith. That faith does not have to be in God but it does have to be a faith in something that you believe with protect you and see you through life’s trials. While a belief in something other than God many help a person in the short term, it will ultimately fail them as everything falls short of the Lord. What is Resilience? Simply defined, resilience is the ability bounce back or recoil after being mashed, twisted, or bent. This is a fitting definition as I know that when I have been faced with trauma, I often felt mashed, twisted, or bent. It is such a simple word with a simple meaning but putting into action can often feel almost impossible. Putting this into action requires strength. A person needs to have a strong resolve and a strong faith in order to bounce back in the face of trauma. We are faced with some sort of trauma on an almost daily basis (Maddi, 2013). From the moment we are born we are participating in the Resilience Life Cycle (Dees & Huckabee, 2011). This applies to people of all ages. Trauma and the ability to recover from it start the minute we are born. The actual act of being born is a traumatic experience in and of itself. Resilience is something we are born with and also something we can strengthen and grow as we get older. Many studies have shown the resilience of children to recover from serious traumatic events. However that