Resiliency

I took to Zell for a very long walk this morning. If you don't know who Zell is, you really need to get to know her She is our little 15 pound silver miniature poodle. She is almost 11 years old and she is just a dream of a dog. She is so happy all the time. If you go back in my podcast a couple of weeks you're going to find an episode about facing life and living life like my dog does. I will link that in the show notes. She gets up every day happy she loves to be alive no matter what is going on that dog loves to be alive. She also lives to eat but that's a whole nother story. She's always happy. So this morning when I got up I decided summers coming It's nice in the mornings now. I love to go out and walk early in the morning as the sun is rising. It helps with with keeping your cortisol levels balanced and and I thought you know what, I'm going to go on a really long walk a couple of miles and I'm going to take diesel with me. So out we went for a walk.

She loves her walks, absolutely loves them after dinner every night we take her on a shorter walk and it's just it is the favorite time of day for her when she gets to go out and sniff everything you know and use the bathroom about 50 times on a short walk. So imagine how many times that happened in the long walk this morning. She was walking through water she was drinking out of streams. She was just happy as a lark.

Our neighborhood is full of hills though.

Big hills.

And sometimes when you get to the bottom of the hill and you turn around and you look back up, you wonder how you're going to make it home. And there is no way to walk in our neighborhood without going on these big huge hills. It is the way it is it's where we live. It's in the mountains and I love it. I love the challenge of walking up those hills. And you always know when the summer comes in or the spring comes and you start walking again.

You remember he remember how big those hills were? And are.

So we were out walking this morning and I was standing at the bottom of the hill and I realized that that hill

No matter how long I waited to take my first step, to go back up the hill to get back to our house, and it's up and down and up and down. But we always end coming up a major Hill to get to the house. But standing at the bottom of that first Hill after we had walked a bit, and we were we were we had walked down the big hill, the first big hill, I turned around, and I looked up at the hill, and I realized that the hill wasn't going to change size.

It was still going to be a big hill, I could have stood there all day waiting for the hill to change, and it wasn't going to change. The only way that I was going to conquer that hill was to take a step, and then another, and another, and another, and another

until I conquered the hill.

The Hill wasn't going to change though. I needed to change

just fell and I just needed to attack the hill. We just needed to embrace the hill, we just needed to walk.

What is the hill in your life? It could be a traumatic loss, maybe a serious illness, family conflict.

Maybe your finances have taken a hit in the last couple of years through the pandemic.

Life just hands us difficult roads sometimes. Sometimes it seems like every road is uphill.

Sometimes it seems like the bad news just keeps coming and coming and coming. We talked about that on an earlier episode. Whether we term it bad news or just news. It's just news. We get to decide what we're going to deal with it that hill, we get to decide what we are going to do with it. My cancer diagnosis, I got to choose what I was going to do with that news.

Losing my brother 11 years ago now almost 11 years ago, when he was just 48 years old, I got to choose what I was going to deal with do with that hill in my life. We all did.

We get to choose what we're doing.

But bouncing back. climbing the hill, is what resiliency is all about.

So when we're going through tough times, when we're looking at that hill, what we do matters.

It doesn't help to numb our minds with say drinking, shopping, staying on your iPad all day.

Those are coping tools. And they're not good coping tools. They're not tools that are going to bring us peace in the face of that huge Hill suffering. resiliency is about coming back stronger than ever. resiliency is about climbing the hill. Life is about the journey.

The hills are going to get smaller, we get to get stronger, we get to find ways to be stronger so that we can truck up the hill.

Now normally When spring comes and I start walking those hills, it's like I've never walked them before. But this year, this year, we got a treadmill going into the winter. And so I was able to set the incline rather high and keep myself conditioned even after cancer surgery. Working back up to that so that when I went out there today, it didn't seem as bad. Now that I wasn't huffing and puffing, not that my legs weren't burning.

But I had chosen resiliency. I had chosen to bounce back. I had chosen that cancer was not going to stop me forever. I took a break for sure I took a beat I needed to. I needed to honor my body with the rest after the surgery, especially getting COVID on top of the surgery. Absolutely I slowed down.

But when I was ready to walk the hill, I was ready to bounce back.

I'm not gonna tell you it was easy. I'm not going to tell you resiliency comes easy, but it is worth it.

There are some tried and true ways to conquer that hill in your life.

Starts with taking the first step.

The first step is the hardest step. Once you take the step the momentum starts to take over. But how do we take the first step?

For me, for me, number one is my faith.

I turn to God He is my higher power. What What is your higher power tap into that? prayer and meditation spending time in quiet

Places, how about seeking the wisdom of a trusted spiritual leader.

These are all valuable, valuable tools.

For me, that communion with the divine is communion with God. And when he gives me the strength, which he always does to take that first step, I am ready.

Number two, in climbing your Hill being resilient community, connection with other people, in times of turmoil, when that hill is in front of you, it is important to seek connection with other humans.

We need people to care and we need people to care about a support system, a community, we can't do everything by ourselves and it is okay to ask for help.

Number three, tapping into our creativity.

Tapping into the parts of us that love to create.

How about picking up a really cool coloring book and just coloring you're never too old to color Listen to me, you can pick up that coloring book and color if you are 115 years old or older. It is so calming and so relaxing to create art.

How about taking a silly dance class, making something out of pottery going to a painting class, guys, that is so fun. I have done this, my painting is horrible. But I did it. And every time I try to throw it in the trash, my husband takes it out of the trash. He says no way you painted this, we're keeping it.

It is not a work of art that would ever fetch any sum of money. In fact, I'd probably have to pay someone to take it. But it was so relaxing.

I have plans to sign up for a tap dancing class to silly dancing. I just want to dance.

If you're confined, let's say after surgery after a surgery and you're confined to bed, pick up a sketch pad and a pencil, knit embroider. Try a little creativity in the tough times. To help you take that first step. Tap into your faith, tap into spirituality, connection, communication, you need other people and tap into your creativity.

Number four, be willing to adapt, be willing to change. Be willing to seek professional counseling, if that's what you need to take your first step. There is nothing, nothing wrong with excellent counseling, therapy.

Sometimes we view that as a weakness, it makes us weak to be in therapy. No, it does not not at all. It is the most empowering thing you can do for yourself.

Be willing to make changes. And maybe that change means seeking counseling support groups.

Learn about how others have managed what you're going through, take their best ideas and put them to use. You want to take that first step up the hill.

Be willing, be willing to learn how others have managed, what you're going through.

And lastly, take care of you. Make sure make sure you are showing yourself compassion.

The times when we're going through hard times is exactly when we need to take care of ourselves. Stress is going to come into your life. Listen. Don't try to block it because stress is coming. It's what we do with that

is how we deal with it. And in those times of extreme stress, give yourself some extra kindness. Give yourself extreme kindness, extreme understanding. Show yourself some compassion.

The wolf is going to come blowing out your door. It's okay. It is okay to have crisis in your life. It's up to you whether or not you bounce back. It's up to you whether or not you take the first step up the hill.

Phil's not going to get any smaller no matter how long you procrastinate. It's not getting any smaller.

But you can make it up the hill.

But you've got to take that first step.

Focus on sleep nutrition. activity level to what is realistic for you. simplify, simplify and stabilize your self care routine.

You can make it up the hill, you absolutely can I believe in you. And there are ways to help you take that first step. Once you take the first step, you're going to keep climbing, and then you're going to find yourself at the top of the hill, you are going to be celebrating because you made it, you have to take the first step. The Hills always going to be there.

Number one to happen to your faith. Number two, connect, have that community. Number three, tap into your creativity, do something fun.

Number four, change. If you need counseling, support groups, learn about how others have managed what you're going through, copy their, their amazing ideas, see what works for you. And number five, show yourself some compassion, major compassion, major self care.

You've got this. You can make it up the hill, you absolutely can overcome. Believe in yourself the way I believe in you. take that first step.

Your journal prompt today is this. My first step to climbing the hill in my life that I find myself in is this.

Write down what your first step is. And let me know how I can support you. This much I can promise you, when I faced hills in my life, and when I face hills in my life,

I navigate them with the help of coach.

Getting my first coach changed my life and I have multiple coaches since then, in different areas of my life. We were never meant to do this alone. coaches are people who pour into you. They are people who believe in you and they are people who journey with you. They help you take the steps up the hill.

When crisis turns your life upside down, you can bounce back.

You can go it alone, or you can have someone in your corner.

Having a coach changed my life in so many ways that I decided to study and take certifications to coach people myself.

Because I knew I wanted to offer that to people because that had helped me so much more than I can even put into words.

I want to be there for you to help you climb that hill. I'm in your corner. I love you. I am your biggest fan. And I can't wait to talk with you again.