For the last few years, I have chosen a word for the upcoming year.  It’s usually a word that just comes to me and it’s used more as an intention than anything else.  This year, I decided to take a different approach.  I decided to pull an oracle card from one of my decks and see what the Universe had in mind.  The card  I pulled was Resiliency.

My first reaction was WTF.  I mean seriously.  Resiliency is all about our ability to bounce back from trials and tribulations and I’ve had about enough of that in my life.  I’m not looking for any more of that right now.  Plus, I thought, I’m already pretty resilient when it comes to major things in my life so why would I need to focus on this?  Then I thought, well, there are some smaller things that I have a really hard time bouncing back from…usually involving not feeling heard or feeling taken advantage of somehow.  Maybe that’s what this is about.  Maybe it’s time to work on that more…

I was all over the place.  From feeling good about the word and what exciting things it might hold for me to feeling as though 2016 was going to be the year my entire world would collapse and I’d never recover.  At the end of it all, I decided to embrace the word and focus on what gets me excited about it…what possibilities it might hold.

I’m not sure what 2016 will look like but I love picking a word and I truly am excited about the possibilities ahead and where this might take me.  I’m doing my best to go with the flow and watch for signs and take care not to overthink or overact as I move forward…not always an easy task.

Like I said, there are many things I am excellent at in terms of resiliency and I feel really good about that in my life.  That isn’t the case for everyone and, if you are one of those who struggle with this and would like some support, I found these great articles you might find useful…

• 5 Best Ways to Build Resiliency
• 10 Ways to Become More Resilient
• The Road to Resiliency
• Building Your Resiliency
• 5 Ways to Build Resiliency, A Practical Guide
• How to Increase Your Resilience Factor
• 4 Unexpected and Easy Ways to Build Resilience

Plain and simple, building resiliency can also involve risk which can be very scary.  When I shared my word for the year with someone on Facebook, they shared this poem.  I love the poem and found it to be a beautiful expression of what risk can be like…

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd, is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.

But risk must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
A person may avoid suffering and sorrow, but cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their certitudes, they are slaves; they have forfeited freedom

Only a person who risks is free.      ~ unknown

Freedom…the very thing I crave is created by taking risk and becoming resilient.  How I love that!