The human psyche plays a remarkable role in the success of individuals. Resilience stands out as one of the most essential traits for coping with the adversities often experienced in life. You may have heard of highly successful people with troubled pasts and wonder how did these individuals fight and soar through their innumerable struggles, and yet appear to have risen unscathed. Well, the truth is that nobody is perfectly unaffected by their experiences. It is the very experience of the so called “good’ and “bad” experiences that contribute towards building a healthy personality. The capacity to weather the storms of life, and to learn from them is a crucial act of human resilience.
Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. The nature of difficulties varies across different social strata, thus the act of comparison is not helpful. Though it is a salient act to commend the struggles that communities with lesser privileges—underprivileged children, women and families; LGBTQ communities; dalit and scheduled castes and tribes; homeless; and abused people etc—encounter in their everyday
lives. Resilience is the wheel that keeps their growth in motion. Resilience is also built through support. Through knowing you’re not alone. NGO’s play a crucial role in meeting underprivileged and marginalised communities halfway through uplifting them, and fuelling
their resilient minds.
Let’s not assume that resilience is always inherent and thus a trait impossible to develop. Resilience, like a skill, can be built, nurtured, encouraged, supported whilst it can also be a survival skill. The human psyche develops various coping mechanisms to allow the individual to withstand their circumstances. Resilience is one such mechanism that encourages the individual to keep faith, to be persistent, and have the ability to not allow unfavourable circumstances to completely break them. Most often it can seem there is no way forward, but resilience is that spell that beckons itself into consciousness to keep moving forward, to believe better things can and will happen. It is a conscious choice that promises growth. It is the phoenix that rises from the ashes.