Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis, or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.
Numerous factors influence a person's level of resilience. Internal factors include personal characteristics such as self-esteem, self-regulation, and a positive outlook on life. External factors include social support systems, including relationships with family, friends, and community, as well as access to resources and opportunities.[3]
People can leverage psychological interventions and other strategies to enhance their resilience and better cope with adversity.[1]

RESILIENCE – VERSION 3.0
Real Life is what happens to us as we live our ever so carefully scripted lives. I did indeed start this blog lifetimes ago in October, while I was in Virginia. I added to it while visiting California in November and finished it in the opening days of January 2025. It has been a journey since then. For me, it was an experiential journey of discovery and resilience, as I found myself pushed beyond my perceived limits by any number of personal, work and societal seismic shifts that I somehow managed to deal with at the same time. Nothing like having your resilience tested and challenged to give you new perspectives on it and showing that you have indeed learned and earned that resilience Life Scout Badge.
New puppy (AKA the incredible shredding machine of all things paper)
potty training
new additional job situation with the same old work BS that makes you roll your eyes like a Vegas slot machine
the same old Christmas/end of the year push to squeeze the last of the insurance benefits out (It never changes. I will restrain myself from making the usual snide comments I make about the end of the insurance year each and every year)
Searching for and GETTING some peace and quiet, space, and grace and self-care
I got to LEARN AND LIVE my resilience.

As I share my experiences and perspectives, please also know that I will experience them in a sense in my own way with you. With greatest of compassion, I hope that you are caring for yourselves and your community and have been able to dig deep to find grounding and connection and indeed the resilience this post is about as you go about your life. Axé.[2]
Resilience is a dynamic quality that I feel is closely tied to Compassion. The lack of self-compassion, and the ability to feel compassion for others creates the ability to have RESILIENCE and cope with the unexpected in both life, medical, and surgical situations. For most people, the entire environment around the surgical period, before, during and after, is a time of stress, unfamiliarity, and a plus-sized black box of the unknown, and potentially terrifying. Almost daily, as I deal with patients (in my current case, pediatric patients, and their families) I put in the front of my mind the awareness that while I deal with anesthesia and surgery conditions daily, this may be the first experience with these type of issues for the parents and their children, and with patients in general. One of the reasons I decided to do surgery coaching is to help patients and their families deal with these situations from a position of strength and information. They will have the tools to potentially deal with challenging and stressful events to build their resilience.
As I write this blog, I am on the East Coast visiting family (and getting ready to Trick or Treat with my nieces and nephews). On my morning walk, I got to soak in the air and atmosphere in the scrub forest. The trees here are not primarily evergreen conifers and maples, but oak, hickory and pine. No towering Douglas firs, and sequoias here! Regardless of the predominant tree type in the different areas of the country, what is normally here is hardwired to be able to withstand the natural environment, rain, wind, and snow. The trees that thrive are resilient; they can adapt to what is thrown at them and thrive. I have always believed that nature can be our biggest and best teacher, if we would only get out into it and soak it in. Trees don’t protest and stiffen in the winds of nature and change. They go with the flow, bending and swaying with the winds to survive. Those trees, too rigid to sway with the wind are damaged or destroyed. I’m not talking about hurricanes, but natural winds.
People are much the same. If their coping skills for normal life and challenges are healthy, they are resilient and able to withstand the storms of life with a little assistance and support. A key aspect of being resilient is being self-compassionate and accepting of your weaknesses and vulnerability. Self-care, self-love and self-compassion are all huge contributors to being resilient and able to cope with life, and peri-surgical stresses. My whole coaching process teaches my patients and clients to first look within to discover the strengths and assets that we all possess to live our lives and thrive. Part of that involves looking at what we possess as qualities that enable us to thrive in current situations, which we can then harness to get through a surgical challenge and journey. Part of identifying these innate strengths involves tuning out distractions which may obscure innate talents and strengths. As much as we may like to be in tune with all that goes on around us, over

reliance on external stimuli can disrupt and destabilize our natural coping skills and resilience. In my October newsletter I discuss coping strategies in the face of chaos and turmoil We have all had a crazy month! Back-to-back hurricanes (for those of you, like me, with loved ones in the path of the fires or storms, I hope they are safe and secure), election angst, the Middle East like a fire on the top of a keg of dynamite…we have ALL been in the washing machine of change and turmoil. Yet all of us have the option to take time away from the tumult and tune in to practices and activities that sustain us and give us RESILIENCE; the ability to cope with turmoil and return to stability and equilibrium. The key to this in regular life is breath work (like box breathing as discussed in my blog on COMPASSION). Developing resilience in the face of the storms lets us withstand the changes and challenges and still maintain us. It also means that these opportunities for potential detriment become instead opportunities for growth, self-realization and further happiness when we realize what we have learned through adversity and subsequent growth. Instead of rigidity and gritting our teeth to withstand and hopefully not break, with resilience mindset we learn to bend and flow with the storms, making small adaptations that will ultimately serve us when the next storms come.
One of the best natural representations I know of resilience is the Tree of Life on the Oregon Coast. A dear friend of mine went there with her hubby. The tree impossibly clings to life between two rocks faces on the Oregon Coast. It’s a Sitka Spruce, which are usually trees that impress with their towering height and majesty. Instead, this scrappy low-growing tree clings to life as it sinks lower and lower each year into the gap between the cliffs. Despite the odds, it thrives and survives.

My love and my business, Oshun Energy Medicine lets me teach humans to make like that tenacious, resilient Tree of Life and thrive in the face of adversity, life challenges and surgery journeys. I’d be delighted to help you deal with your challenges and THRIVE WITH RESILIENCE AND SELF-COMPANSSION
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