#1 “The Power of Meditation”-- Dharma

For me, resilience is fostered by my meditation practice… learning to set the Quiet Moments and realize that meditation is the art of using one form of energy to transform another and to focus on the present moment with the awareness of the teacher Thich Nhat Han “...no mud no Lotus…” Being aware that whatever one is experiencing, whatever arises ask yourself what is this here to teach me? And in those quiet moments Insight Clarity compassion is often revealed. 

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#2 “The power of discussion”--  Laura

When I’m feeling down I usually do one of two things. If it's the middle of the night and I'm feeling really sad or anxious, I will usually try to meditate, so I'll open my insight timer app and I will try to listen to the longest meditation I can find, sometimes an hour, and especially if it's a helpful sleep meditation, it'll help me start getting calm enough to go to sleep. Those are usually very calming to me. If it's during the day, I'll probably call one of my best friends and I will attempt to talk it out. That's usually the best way for me to start to make sense of things and start feeling better or I talk to my boyfriend. It helps me to lay everything out even if it sounds crazy to me, and as I start talking it all out it's almost like a big brain dump and a lot of times just by talking about it I'll start feeling better and I'll start to make sense of things and it might start feeling better to me as well as I start making sense of why I feel sad. A lot of times it helps me to get to the bottom of things sometimes there's a very small reason I'm feeling sad and I can't get to it and once I talk I feel better.

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#3 “Resilience through love”-- Dan

For me what helps me keep going or what helps keep me resilient is the love and support of my parents. I have a very close relationship with them. Also the love and care that I get from my friends; that also helps me keep going or gives me resilience to continue on. Not that I don't have with resilience, probably most the time it comes I'm from one's inner self cuz if you really just depends on other people or other things I believe that it  will be much harder to be resilient or to just you know keep going so you have to have a certain level of resilience in yourself. I do think of course that it really really really helps if you have a loving healthy relationship with your family, close family members, and with some close friends. That can really augment, you know, help keep you going or whatever is needed to go on in life.

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#4 “Resilience in the creative process”-- Abimbola

Hi my name is Abimbola Otu. Um… who gives me strength? My mother, my art students, the people around me who believe in the beauty of my dreams, who trusts my creative abilities,  my friends, my colleagues, my acquaintances, my mentors, would cheer me on to be the best I can be.  What keeps me going is the hope that one day my dreams will come true. It is my zeal to learn everyday, to experiment with new art forms and experienced an absolutely different way of life by sharing my knowledge with everyone around me. An experience of resilience I would like to share is to say that art saved me in the moments when I couldn't stop myself , when I was lost to myself and I have no hope of getting up art \ was my place of solace. in those moments I poured out my emotions into writing…writing short stories, poetry,  into crafting. I made several homemade cards, bags and scrapbooks while I was in college. And even when I got into institution with little to money to survive on Art was my Saving Grace. I made several pencil sketches and I got paid for them. There is a certain kind of Joy when my works make people happy. When you know it gives them a reason to forge on.  Life is a journey with so many hurdles,  but like the layers of an onion it gets better with every peel.

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#5 “The impact of journaling”-- Stacey

I think when I am feeling challenged or unrecognized or frustrated, one of the things I found most helpful is to journal actually, and, um, I always have a journal in my life. I always have a journal in my life, and it can be a notebooks filled with to-dos and different lists and pie charts and graphs and things like that but I think that gettings all my feelings out on paper and writing continuously and not editing or thinking helps me clear the cobwebs and also you know in a couple days I can look back and see where I was and reflect on any changes that have been made and did I take action on those frustrations. And so I would say writing, definitely free writing is one of my tools.

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#6 “Inspiration from family struggles"-- Kilusan 

One of the stories of resilience that comes to mind is a story about my Father Anthony. Many years ago, actually in the eighties and nineties, he was struggling with drug addiction and narcotics addiction– specifically crack, cocaine, alcoholism, all while trying to raise 4 children as an immigrant from the Philippines in the San Francisco Bay Area. He went to a rehabilitation center for Veterans for 6 months to a year and stayed involved in AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, and NA, Narcotics Anonymous, support groups throughout the years. and I believe now he is over 25 years clean, which is an example of resilience. I always try to honor my father from his past experiences and the lessons that it teaches me in my life as an adult and now raising a family, and no matter what struggles I may encounter I have my father's example of resilience and overcoming drug and alcohol addiction and living a clean, sober, and free life.