Inner work frameworks, practices, and questions – all in a five-minute read. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before you even wake up. Written and curated by Andrew Lang.
Resilience doesn't mean to "bounce back" : The Wednesday 1-2-3
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Happy Wednesday Reader! Here's 1 teaching, 2 questions, and 3 resources to explore this week: 1. TeachingHaving resilience doesn’t mean to “bounce back.” And yet many of us have been given this default understanding of what it means to be resilient – to recover from harsh changes and challenges so we can keep moving forward. This is a problem. Dorcas Cheng-Tozun notes this default understanding implies “the resilient person bounces back quickly, mostly unharmed and unchanged, from any hardship.” This understanding of resiliency disregards and attempts to bypass:
Just take a moment and think about what you've heard from others during times of challenge: It's not that big of a deal. Brush it off. Rub some dirt on it. Keep your head up. This form of resilience is more about ensuring we keep on keeping on than it is about us being present to what it means to live a human experience. Here’s another definition to try on and see how it fits: Resilience:
"The capacity of a system, enterprise, or person to maintain its core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances.” –Andrew Zolli
With this definition in mind, being resilient isn’t about “bouncing back.” Being resilient is a matter of experiencing the messiness of the world and maintaining one’s tender connection, however fragile it may be, to their sense of perseverance, courage, and identity. 2. Questions
3. Resources
⏪ If you missed last week's email:Hope all is well-enough with you, Andrew P.S. Is there a song lyric, quote, framework, or teaching from an Elder that has made a big impact in your life? If you're willing to share, I would love to hear it (and potentially pass it along!) Just hit "reply" and let me know! 🙂 |
The Wednesday 1-2-3
Inner work frameworks, practices, and questions – all in a five-minute read. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before you even wake up. Written and curated by Andrew Lang.
Hey Reader, A quick reminder to start us off 👇 Tomorrow night, Kimberly Novosel and I will be hosting our first “sweatshirt session!” If you’re feeling a bit exhausted by the world and want a few new practices for self-connection and staying soft, yet fierce, I hope you’ll consider joining us. Today's focus is on a concept used in family systems therapy known as the “transitional character.” This is someone who becomes a change-maker in their family lineage by refusing to pass down...
Hey Reader, I recently received an email from one of our Wednesday 1-2-3 readers sharing this super relatable challenge: “setting goals I can stay with over time.” Woof – me too! In my day job, I train teachers in a style of education known as project-based learning. And one of the things I talk most with teachers about is how we can emphasize “process over product” in our classrooms. (You can probably guess: I have a lot of critical things to say about standardized testing.) In other words,...
Hey Reader, Every minute of every day, we’re making decisions. (I know, I know – I wrote about decision making last week too.) Sometimes the decisions we make are fully grounded, well thought-out, and exude the energy we want to embody in the world. And sometimes…they aren’t. Instead, they can be reactive to what’s going on around us and unconsciously (and uncritically) informed by the under-the-surface movements going on within us. This week has been busy in my life (a new position at work,...