Resilience

Friends:

As we move forward in our discernment about how a return to a re-integration of spirituality (see definition in last post) and health care can improve all aspects of living (i.e., health, wellness and wholeness), we must consider resilience and meaning. We will first cover resilience, and in Thursday's post, we will focus on meaning.

Resilience is that quality of humanity that allows for people to encounter "bad" or negative events in their lives and to positively move through them to a new and better place. Vanistendael and Lecomte in 2000 proposed a model (which looks like a small house or "casita")for the development of resilience. The foundation is built on basic physical health, and then on top of that comes networks of informal relationships (family, friends, etc) and fundamental acceptance of person (not behavior(s)). Built on the foundation is the "ground floor" of the capacity to discover sense, meaning and coherence (shared vision). The "first floor" is characterized by self esteem, skills competences and constructive humor. The "attic" is a place of discovery, with no set pieces - it is the place of Shalom (wholeness as envisioned by God). [Note: The last piece is my interpretation, not the authors.] Thus, it appears from this research that unless there is basic physical health and an acceptance of the person, there can be no resilience.

These "foundations" are what is missing in so much of our world today - including the U.S. We are not providing for basic physical health for all persons (and the new health insurance reform package does little or nothing to provide this), and relationship webs and acceptance are more fractured than ever. Thus, it appears that the first initiatives to moving towards Shalom are to rebuild these foundations. Because, without resilience, we as a people are unequipped to handle the "slings and arrows or outrageous fortune" that life throws at us.

So, how do spiritual or faith communities play a role in building capacity for resilience in all persons? They do so, as they have done historically, by creating a welcoming community that accepts all persons unconditionally and loves them in the same manner. Following the tenets of loving others as ourselves and sharing equally among the "body" one creates a network that promotes healthy behaviors and practices, creates friendships and support systems, and is accepting of persons where they are at. Thus, faith communities might just be the answer for the poor health and declining resilience that is seen in our world today.

A return to resilient persons...spirituality can create the space for the foundations to be re-built.

Peace,
Dan