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Something Worth SharingScars Of Our Storms Having recently read ‘Always Remember’ by Charlie Mackesy, I’ve been focusing some attention on resilience. In the book, Charlie sets the tale of his characters against a backdrop of a storm. One of the interesting things about this was his framing of ‘storm’ as the physical storm, but also of the storms we can endure within us. Throughout my life and work, I can certainly think of numerous storms - both emotional and practical ones. Resilience is about how we respond and reshape following such storms. I recall running workshops with a wonderful man who used to use a squishy ‘stress’ ball to demonstrate resilience to the room. As he squeezed the stress ball and then let go, you would see the ball return to its original state. However, I feel very strongly that we never return to the exact same shape - or state - that we held before the storm struck. What’s more, I am grateful that we don’t return to what we were before. The scars of our storms demonstrate our courage, our learnings, our discovered empathy and most importantly - our growth. While many of the hardships that accompany the storms of life are deeply painful, the scars show that we survived. The willingness to show our scars and to be vulnerable - to share the stories of them - is a sign of strength and means that each storm had value for us. Denying the ‘scars of our storms’ is the same as denying a storm even happened and that we overcame it. True resilience is about accepting our history and using the lessons from storms to move forward and enjoy the sunshine.
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