Many Kinds of Strength
I am strong and resilient
How does your body respond to that statement? Does it feel mostly true? Do you feel a no?
We have many kinds of strength, each a bit different.
Physical: we have enough physical capacity and strength for our life
Emotional: we have the toughness to be present and not escape
Courage to speak up: we are able to stand up for ourselves and others
Endurance: we can stay the course
Perseverance: we don't give up
Compassionate presence: we have the capacity to keep our heart open
How do you assess your strength and resilience? What are your criteria?
What are your personal strength levels the last few weeks or months, the last few years, and over your lifetime? Do you feel you are a strong person?
How does your strength vary day-to-day? Are you fairly consistent or do you experience big swings in your experience of strength and resilience?
When stressed, how quickly do you recover? (perhaps compared to when you were younger)
What activities, people, and practices support your strength and resilience?
What activities, people, and beliefs drain your strength?
Identify one limiting belief that makes you feel weak. Look at the words and images. Feel the sensations in your body. Do frame/trace on the images and allow your body to relax and soften. Breathe.
Recall a past experience of strength and be specific.
Who was there? What were you doing that exhibited strength? What were you saying and how? Notice the strength in your voice.
Bring your body into a confident posture as you remember. You might stand, shoulders relaxed, legs strong, feet grounded on the earth. Say the words out loud. Breathe. Feel your strength in your body. Stay with this for at least three minutes.
After you’ve spent some time with standing tall, bring back that limiting belief and let your body reflect how you feel now. What changed in your body? Reflection: what is the purpose and impact of that limiting belief?
Let yourself come back into awareness of your strength and resilience. We don’t need to believe everything that comes into our mind, especially when it saps our strength. Many limiting thoughts come from conditioning about our value and they are not true. We contribute in many ways we may not be counting, and our value as a person is more than our job and service to others.
Practices for Strength
Meditation and mindfulness help calm anxiety and regulate the nervous system.
Somatic awareness practices reveal thoughts and beliefs that drain strength.
Movement practices, like dance or breathwork, can release tension and restore balance.
Review and reflect on the six kinds of strength from the top of this post for a more accurate assessment. Building and sustaining strength and resilience is a continuous journey of self-awareness, patience, and kindness.
In this week’s Sunday free community class, we begin a several week focus on strength and resilience. You are welcome to join us! Details and link here.