“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” — Robert Jordan

Resilience is a psychological quality that allows some people to weather adversity and come back at least as strong as before, perhaps even stronger. Rather than letting challenges, disruptions or failures overcome them and drain their energy and resolve, highly resilient people find a way to pivot, emotionally heal and continue moving forward.

How do we build resilience?

It’s possible (not easy) to get through pain and disappointment without them becoming debilitating. Researchers have begun to uncover what more resilient people do to emotionally and mentally move forward after major setbacks such as the loss of a loved one, job loss, acute illness or the end of a marriage. What they’ve learned may help all of us become more resilient ourselves.

Do you attribute personal and professional setbacks solely to your own inadequacy or are you able to shift to a place of identifying contributing factors that are specific and perhaps temporary? Do you demand perfection or are you able to accept that life is a mix of wins and losses? In each case, the latter example has been linked to greater levels of resilience.

I remember when my marriage ended. I felt like I had irrevocably let myself and my children down. It took intentional healing work to shift my thinking and, more importantly, my heart to understand that just because my marriage failed didn’t mean I was a failure. I realized that to fail is a deeply human experience and that everyone, regardless of background, skillset or life story, will fail miserably at least once in life. It sucks, but once you realize it’s inevitable and that you are not alone it makes things a bit more palatable. I believe that subtle mindset shift was the difference between surviving my divorce and now thriving as a single mom and business owner.

Part of my healing work involved chakra balancing. Through my reiki training and practice I intentionally focused on balancing my second chakra, the sacral chakra. A balanced sacral chakra helps give you the ability to take risks and have the resilience to recover when things go wrong. I think you’d agree this is critical to running a business or managing a career. The sacral chakra also symbolizes our creative potential, our ability to harbor fulfilling relationships as well as our sexual energy – all coming together to create an empowered and confident individual.

Understanding my chakras was integral to building resilience in my life and I know it can be a powerful tool for you, too. That’s why I came up with Aligned: Chakras for Business. Aligned is a 14-week program where we’ll explore your chakras, building a workable understanding of how they function in your daily life and learning skills and practices that will serve you even when life throws you its sharpest curveballs. When you are fully Aligned, you become the willow: too bendable to break.