My resilience is low right now.

Can anyone relate? Have you ever, in your human history, gone through a period of having low resilience?

Because it’s not particularly fun. And, because we don’t all use words the same way (especially me, according to Sam), I’ll take a moment to explain what I mean by “my resilience is low right now.”

I am in a chapter where the vicissitudes of life are hitting harder than they would if I had greater resilience. Meaning that little tiny obstacles or road bumps – normal parts of the human experience – knock me around more than I like.

When I worked in DC, I had two bosses I really admired: my boss and her boss. Her boss, the GM of the hotel, was a fan of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and recommended it wholeheartedly. So I went to the intro weekend and they shared a metaphor that stuck with me.

When you use the tool of TM, they said, it’s like you begin walking through life with a raincoat on. The showers and downpours of a normal human life begin to roll off your back. You become less reactive. Less volatile. Less influenced by what’s going on around you.

You begin to reside in the divine abode of equanimity (to borrow from Buddhism), where you’re kind of just okay no matter what. Like the Dalai Lama or Pema Chodren.

The Gene Keys also shares this state of being as a key goal of the practice, but it calls the state “core stability.” When you tap into your core stability, you live in a state of dynamic equilibrium. Things come up, but you respond like a surfer, making a series of micro adjustments to ride the wave with dignity and grace. You don’t get upset when a big wave comes your way. You think, “I’ve got this.” Sometimes, you even get excited by the big wave because its a chance to test your developing skills.

But me? I’m not particularly excited by big waves at the moment. I don’t look at them and think, “Oooh how wonderful. A chance to test my skills and see how I’m doing in my spiritual development.”

I think, “Ughhhhhhhhhhh. This isn’t good timing. Our next egg retrieval is coming up and I’m already on hormones and I’m about to be on mega doses of hormones and I’m worried about going into that process when I’m already in a state of low resilience and…”

But maybe I can shift that. Maybe I can tap into the eternal optimism that is the birthright of a Sagittarius and start to be as excited as a surfer when a big wave comes my way.

I had no idea this was the direction the musing was going to go. I thought I was going to share a “here’s why I love using the language of ‘resilience’ to talk about the human experience” contemplation, but I never actually know where a musing is going to go. I put my fingers on the keyboard and see what comes up. And I guess today, I needed to hear about the surfer.

In delighted curiosity (and everlasting gratitude for the many gifts of writing),

Keely

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Morning Musings is a delight-first writing practice where I make a cup of coffee, dance around my house a little bit, then put my fingers on the keyboard and see what comes up.

Some folks find these musings helpful. If you know anyone who might like this musing, please share it freely.

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AI disclosure: I run my musings through ChatGPT using the following prompt - “Good morning, can you please proofread this, checking only for typos, spelling errors and grammatical mistakes without changing any of the words or the tone of the piece?” One of my shamanic teachers says it’s important to communicate with AI the way that you’d communicate with a cherished team member and not like a slave. Please do this.