Developing Our Natural Resilience

Summary

Graham assures us that we can rewire neural networks in our brain and build resilience to the point that positive emotions become almost a default reaction. Positive emotions are natural in easy times but more difficult to evoke in hard times. Resilience and positive emotions are inseparable. Linda Graham explains how developing habits such as mindfulness, self-compassion, and body awareness can help us learn to naturally respond with grace and skill when we are under pressure. She explains that having a regular practice of bringing up positive emotions when negative feelings arise weakens those negative feelings, making resilience easier and easier. Graham offers practical examples of behaviors that can help us outgrow our tendencies to feel bad and make “bouncing back” a natural response to challenges. “Sometimes we’ve been conditioned to have more negative or less adaptive responses to our experience…those memories are embedded deeply in our circuitry…when we can place a positive experience in our conscious awareness…the positive can trump the negative.” (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)