the Bounce

The Bounce

Maria Konnikova had an interesting article on resilience in the New Yorker. She explored how some psychologists look at resilience in children. Her title implies that resilience is learned. 

She also states, “ Perception is the key to resilience, …” 

She develops two important dynamics about resilience, 

(1) first that it it learned and 

(2) second that it is dependent on how we view the situation that we find ourselves in.

The article gives rise to two questions 

how do we learn resilience? 

how do we pivot, 

how do we bounce back from an upsetting or challenging experience?

If we have a distorted mirror, i.e. a challenged family setting that is less functional, how can we learn to bounce? 

Can we learn to correct the curvature of the distorted mirrors that a less functional family offers?

Dr. William Tiller, in "What the bleep ... down the rabbit hole," talked about a scientist who gave people a set of  glasses that contained prisms which inverted the image that they saw. The people had to wear the glasses. Initially while wearing the glasses, the people saw everything upside down. 

After a period of time while wearing the glasses, the brain flipped the image right side up. 

Even though the people were  wearing glasses that inverted the image of what they saw,  

people saw everything right side up.  

After a period of time the people removed the glasses and without the glasses and the inverting prism, people saw everything upside down. 

Again after a period of time, the brain corrected the vision and everything appeared right side up. 

This raises the question huh?  

How did the brain know to flip the vision when the physical apparatus that was placed in the path of our sight created the distortion? 

Perhaps there is a resonance within our inner being that knows.

Could it be that resilience is not learned as in finding newly discovered material? 

Rather could resilience be a part of the universal unconscious that Jung spoke about, 

that is, resilience is part of our essence, part of our spirit?

 If this is so, how does it happen that one person can easily allow the resilience to emerge and positively create their experience? 

How is it that another person gets lost among the confusing stimuli and flounders?

Is it a question of turning in and finding the center of the self? 

Is it a question of breathing (meditating) allowing? seeking? believing?

Ms. Konnikova indicates in her article that psychologists have found that  

people who have a sense of spirituality 

have a higher likelihood of being resilient. Interesting … the reality moves deeper.

I wonder if the ability to bounce, to be resilient is simply connecting with oneself, connecting with Source Energy (God) and believing the path will open?

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 Konnikova, Maria, How People Learn to Become Resilient the New Yorker, 2/11/16

What the bleep; Down the rabbit hole.” 2006