The Awesome Intersection of Resilience and Worthiness

In today’s Being Worthy blog, I’m going to tell you about the transformational connection of resilience and worthiness.

One of my favorite inspirational mentors is Dr. Robert Brooks who has spent his entire life’s work working with children and adults to develop a resilient mindset. (He grew up in Brooklyn too!) Along with his friend and colleague Dr. Sam Goldstein, they have described the many ways we can promote hope, optimism, and fortitude in children. Their latest book is The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life. Please check out Bob and Sam’s ten steps to resilient living. I think you will like it.

Two years ago, I spent a week in Galway, Ireland attending one of Bob’s workshops Resilience Across the Life Span. Besides driving through the beautiful Irish countryside, I went with a specific purpose in mind.

I was still dealing with my own bereavement, having lost a very dear person in my practice to suicide. This was Amanda (not her actual name) who was 29 years old at the time of her death. I worked with her for over 9 years and she is the inspiration for my book Being Worthy.

I was clearly not bouncing back from this tragedy as the therapeutic relationship between Amanda and I was a strong one so losing her was so very painful. I still think about her every day. She would often say to me, “You don’t understand. I’m not worthy. There’s nothing you or anyone can do to fix me.” I tell the whole story of Amanda throughout Being Worthy.

I spoke about the concept of worthiness to Bob Brooks while in Galway and how it is a necessary complementary construct to what he has prolifically described as being a resilient person. In my way of thinking, resilience is an essential element in the Periodic Table of Worthiness. Bob was very gracious in his encouraging me to explore self-worth and even writing Being Worthy.

With this in mind, I have two conceptual equations for you to think about as you go about your days.

• Worthlessness + Hopelessness = Complete Despair
• Worthiness + Hope = Resilience

Why does this matter?

It is important for us to discover and build upon our cornerstone of innate worth. Remember that you were born worthy. It’s been said that ‘God don’t make no junk’ so therefore no one or nothing has the right to bring you down. There are unfortunately horrible, traumatic things and events that happen to people that can crush their spirit. When this occurs, it can render us feeling worthless, powerless, and hopeless. This leads to a state of complete despair.

We need to call upon all of our Worthy Warriors to help us restore our basic dignity and keep hope alive.

This is why it’s so important for us to realize that we are worthy no matter what. Drill down and find that self-worth and with hope, you will be resilient. I discuss the ten steps to discover your worthiness in my upcoming book Being Worthy.

No matter what happens in your life, with an understanding and appreciation of your self-worth, together with the tools of resilience, you can achieve balance.

A sense of optimistic positivity can take you far!