LIFT [Behind the Design] + Resilience

Ah resilience, its a word you hear often in chronic illness world.

Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with it. Whenever someone calls me resilient two thoughts come to mind:

• I didn’t have a choice.

• I wish I wasn’t given circumstances that require constant resiliency.

Then my next thought is inevitably, that both of my earlier thoughts were not helpful. All they do is leave me wishing life was different. They take my mind from the past and fast forward to the future while missing the present. So, I will reframe my perspective that adding that ‘I learned valuable lessons and it has made me stronger’ while acknowledging that it has really sucked at times too. That’s the ebb and flow of life for you.

Anyway, resiliency…

It came up in a book I’m reading and I have to share these two sentences that perfectly sum up the meaning of resilience imo.

The lines were:

Sometimes being resilient means never giving up + leaving no stone unturned. Other times, it requires adjustment and acceptance.

Resilience isn’t black and white, it’s not always pushing through. Sometimes it’s stepping back, accepting that this is how it is and then adapting to it. It’s about knowing yourself and what you need in the moment. In order to do that, you have to be tuned into your body and mind AND be willing to accept what it’s telling you even if you don’t like it.

* If I had a mic I would drop it b/c THAT is a meaning I can get behind. *

It’s fucking hard to be resilient. Yet, at the same time it is our darkest, most challenging moments that can facilitate growth in ways lighter moments can’t.

RESILIENCE and LIFT

Ok so what does LIFT (as in living with illness and fucking thriving) and resilience have in common?

Well, they both require you to to know yourself while also being realistic and strategic.

Living with illness and fucking thriving doesn’t mean to bulldoze your way through life, overdoing it and not listening to your body. It doesn’t mean to add rainbows, butterflies, and a nauseating level of positivity to shitty circumstances either.

LIFT is about accepting your reality, learning about yourself and your body as best as possible, and moving forward strategically in a way that works for you and aligns with the life you want to live.

To do this you must be present in the here and now. That awareness AND ACCEPTANCE of your reality is absolutely key. Think about it, you won’t know whether to keep pushing or stop if you are delulu or fighting reality. You have to be able to tune in with yourself and figure out what you need AND THEN ACTUALLY DO IT.

It is the action - the doing it - that cultivates resilience, that allows you to fucking thrive with illness. Whether the action you choose is an action like doing something, or an action like choosing NOT to do something, you still learn. You learn what works and what doesn’t. All that sets you up to fucking thrive.

It’s the action that says ‘Not today. Today I’m taking control of my life’. The more you do it, the more trust you build with yourself and the more your confidence will grow.

It’s easier said than done, but like most things that fall in that category, it’s worth it.

This LIFT design is for you if you’re someone with a chronic illness and you still show up everyday.

It’s for you if you have faced challenges and struggles day after day.

It’s for the newly diagnosed person trying to figure out life and for the o.g. person facing different difficulties that arise with time.

It’s for all of us who face bs day in and day out and choose to make the best out of shitty circumstances.

It’s for everyone who choses to live with illness and fucking thrive.