What is resilience, and why does it matter?

Resilience is the ability to stay calm and cheerful in high levels of change and challenge, to bounce back when something difficult happens, to face up to a problem and find a good solution. Enjoying your Future is a range of skills and processes offered by a small professional team to help individuals, teams and whole organisations to raise their resilience, and their ability to succeed and enjoy the changes ahead.

Resilience matters because most of us have to face more changes and pressures than we can easily deal with.  This can make us stressed, damage our health, and cause tension with the people around us.  It’s typically our reaction to events that causes us most stress, including worrying about possible future problems that have not even happened. Resilience is a set of life skills which help us to stay centred and react positively, finding creative ways to use difficulties as a chance to move a situation forward. This can help us to improve our wellbeing and quality of life even when things feel complex and turbulent.

Enjoying your Future is a non-profit project led by Alan Heeks which is creating learning materials, pilot events, and a network of interested individuals and organisations around the theme of personal resilience. Click for information about events, and resources.

Adventures in Resilience (AIR) is a monthly e-newsletter compiled by Alan Heeks providing updates and ideas and inviting comment on the theme of personal resilience.

One roadmap for making your life and work more resilient and sustainable is to use the principles and methods of organic growth. These seven principles are set out in Alan’s first book, The Natural Advantage.

If you are a man over 50, or are close to one, you may be interested in Out of the Woods: A Guide to Life for Men Beyond 50, Alan’s most recent book, published in 2013 to help with the life issues of this age group.

You will also find more help in the Desert and Woodland Wisdom sections of this website, for example spiritual principles, events, books and other websites.