There are different times through your growth as a creative that demand resilience from you. Whether it’s battling a case of imposter syndrome or the disappointment of a rejection for a commission. Resilience means to believe in who you are and keep going. I have created a recipe for resilience, so you can make the perfect serving for you.
Resilience is an essential power dish that when included in a balanced diet promotes healthy growth. With a combination of life’s most essential ingredients, you can be sure resilience will feed your body mind and spirit with what it needs for your journey. You’ll notice that there are no quantities in this recipe. That is because it differs on the person and the circumstances they find themselves in. Each serving can be made with the ratio that feels right to an individual at that time.
Ingredients
Faith
Self-compassion
Patience
Support
Determination
Method -
1. This recipe begins with faith. Faith is the bulking ingredient; it serves as the foundation of your resilience. Faith is the trust in that there is a greater meaning and a bigger purpose behind your experiences and your practise. Faith can be applied to resilience through meditative and reflective techniques.
2. Self-compassion is the binding ingredient in resilience. All the other components come together when you treat yourself with tenderness. This means staying kind to yourself and taking care of your mind and body. That could be through having a gentle attitude towards your feelings or looking after your physical health through sleep, nutrition and exercise that you enjoy. Good quality self-compassion can be found in reflecting on and acknowledging all of your achievements.
3. Next, we add a little patience to enhance the other ingredients. Sometimes faith and self-compassion can feel a little coarse because of the energy they require. By adding patience, we ground ourselves in the understanding that process can take time. This understanding can increase our faith and encourage acts of kindness towards ourselves during the process.
4. Now comes the next ingredient, support. Support adds sweetness to resilience. Resilience is often understood as something that has to be experienced in a state of solitude, but as social creatures support from others can take away the sharpness that the circumstances which require resilience can discomfort us with. Support can soothe anticipation, fatigue, or ambiguity.
5. Keep mixing and feel free to add more of an ingredient until the mixture feels right for you.
6. Finally, you may garnish before serving with a sprinkle of determination. This gives the dish some oomph. Determination is best grown through connecting with or observing those who are where you want to be or reflecting on your personal goals. Whilst resilience can still be made without it, a sense of ‘I can and I will’ can take your regular serving of resilience to a Michelin grade dish.
Feel free to use the question below as a prompt to reflect on this creative piece. If you would like to share your reflection, you can click through on the question to our open sharing page.
With thanks to our partners and funders:
