Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
You find me up on Dartmoor on a cool summer evening.
We've had such a lot of hot weather recently so coming up here with the fleece on and feeling the coolness of the breeze is a delight and a pleasure.
As you know I'm not a great one for the heat.
I wilt in the heat so when the coolness comes again I feel quite relieved.
It still is dry and it's still feels bright and it still feels summery to me but it's not as hot.
In front of me I can see a herd of cows and there's sheep and up on the hillside above me I can see a few ponies grazing.
This is a glorious time of day to come out and about.
And today's reflection is a reminder for you,
Really,
About being resilient.
It's a reminder that you are resilient,
More resilient than you probably realize.
What do I mean by resilient?
I mean that in any one moment when a challenge occurs,
You will find your system,
Your psychological system will do the best it can to get you through that situation in the most healthy,
Nourishing way that will keep you safe.
And most people feel that resilience is something they have to build up or train up or they need to have plans about what's gonna happen in life or what they might do if different things happen in life.
And I want to just give you a slightly different take on resilience,
Because I see it differently than I used to.
I used to have lots of concerns and worries about the future,
And I used to have lots of different plans,
Plan A,
Plan B,
Plan C,
About what I might do in different circumstances,
Depending on what might have happened.
And when I came across the inside out understanding,
I came across something that felt truer for me.
I started to realize that I had an inner guidance system.
I call it my inner compass.
It's a system of wisdom and intelligence that flows through me and comes to the fore,
Particularly when I come across a challenge in life.
And resilience is something we all have.
And I want to just share a little story of this because my sister recently,
She realized her resilience in a situation.
She was helping to look after my mum.
And as you know,
I'm one of four siblings and we take in turns looking after mum.
And it was her turn to stay overnight and just keep an eye on mum during the day.
And on her watch,
Mum had a fall and she fell over.
And my sister tried hard to pick her up but she was too heavy to pick up so she couldn't pick her up and then she had the presence of mind to phone up my brother and my brother tried to talk her through how she might help mum and then eventually my brother phoned up a neighbour who came and helped my sister pick up mum and clean her off and put her back into bed again.
So all's well that ends well.
What was interesting about this is my sister was really concerned about this happening on her watch.
She had thinking and was worried that maybe something might happen that she would find tricky to deal with.
And of course it did happen on her watch.
But the difference is that my sister just dealt with what was in front of her.
And at each step she made really good decisions that had her mum and her be safe.
And she eventually found a way to support mum and get mum back into bed safely.
And indeed the next day the health services came around and checked over mum as well.
She did an extraordinary job.
And the difference is this,
Is that if I had told my sister that that was going to happen to her that night,
She would have worried about it so much.
But when she just dealt with what happened in front of her,
What she had going for her was her resilience coming through,
And it came through loud and strong.
And she looked after mum and she reassured her and she phoned up my brother and my brother had resilience too and found a neighbour to come and help and everything was okay in the end.
Resilience was the thread that connected everybody,
My mum included,
That night.
And I want you to be reassured that resilience is the thread in your life too.
It is at the foundation of everything.
And it comes to the fore when you or I experience challenging situations.
It appears in the moment.
It's not something we can pre-plan.
Resilience shows up and it's often exactly the right shape for the circumstance that we're in at that moment.
And we couldn't have pre-planned it.
So today I want you to be reassured about the resilience in your life.
When life gets tricky or challenging,
It is there and it will show up for you too.
It will get you through the day.
It will help you take the next step.
Let me know your reflections on the story of resilience.
And don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
