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What traits would you say a person would have if you were asked to describe a resilient person?
By definition resilience is the ability to bounce back, recover from tough times and adapt to change.
Maybe you feel like me on the subject of resilience and think that resilient people are the ones that have it all together and have figured out how to succeed at everything in their lives.
I know for certain resilient people are the ones that have overcome horrible battles with cancer or other illnesses or painful endings to relationships that broke their heart, unexpected tragedies, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job and on the list could go.
I used to think those resilient people were always strong, were rarely afraid, they had life all figured out they didn't get knocked down.
But life has shown me there is a broader scope of resilience.
Sometimes resilience is simply not giving up when something feels too hard.
Resilience is still smiling and being able to find joy in things despite the fact that we don't feel strong, we are indeed afraid, and we definitely don't have life all figured out.
Even just believing in ourselves to handle disappointing and painful things in life is resilience.
We will all have failed attempts and failed relationships, lost opportunities, unfulfilled dreams, I know I sure have.
We can read self-help books and seek therapy. I have.
But unfortunately, even those things won't give us all the answers and fix all our problems, but they can help us see them differently.
We are all struggling with something or someone. We will all face varying levels of suffering as we journey through life.
Not all problems will be easily resolved or resolved at all and not all things we hoped for will come to pass. And that is ok because we have resilience.
Whatever your struggle is remember resilience can be a quiet persistence in the face of difficulty it doesn't have to be a loud impressive show of strength.
So, if you find yourself struggling like I do sometimes, give yourself a little break. Look at how you might be practicing resilience in your own life in ways you hadn't realized before.
Resilience doesn't mean you get everything right, it means you keep trying when you get it all wrong.
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Sarah Hurlburt is a Sentinel correspondent.