How to Grow More Resilient

Hurricanes, wildfires, and political unrest. The news can be quite upsetting.  During these difficult times, how can we find strength? Where does resilience come from? The right side of our brain may contain the answer.

You may have heard about Neuroscientist and author Jill Bolte Taylor.   Dr. Bolte had suffered a stroke in her left brain.  She lost most of her physical functioning.  However, the stroke opened up the right side of her brain even more.  In her book “My Stroke of Insight,” she talks about how she felt a deep connection to the Divine that brought intense feelings of peace, love, and joy.

This experience was so powerful, she was tempted to sit back and enjoy these feelings.  Yet, she knew she had to seek help to live.  Eventually, she was able to dial the phone and survived.  Dr. Bolte believes those higher feelings of love and joy are found in the right creative side of the brain, not in the thinking left side of the brain.

That explains why if we are constantly thinking, and pushing our brains even harder for a solution, the answer comes only after we go for a walk or take a shower.  Letting go allows us to receive from the right brain.  So to combat stressful thinking, Guided Imagery can help us tap into the more creative, right hemisphere of love, peace, and joy.  This is where our real power lies.  Just closing our eyes connects us to the right side of the brain and that’s how Imagery begins.

Sometimes just observing feelings in a meditative state can help them be released and flow through us and not get stuck.   Setting aside time for this can help us grasp our true nature.  We are human.  We have feelings.  Accepting the good and the bad feelings allows us to open up to compassion for ourselves and others.  Tuning in to our right side of our brain through meditation and Guided Imagery can help us build resilience.

Wishing you peace!