Resilience is the power of finding the gain in pain and raise from difficult times and sorrow. Taking our power back and looking for possible blessings in disguise that finally made us wiser or stronger.

In my coaching practice, I often get to hear powerful stories from women who’ve been through terrible life experiences: illness, divorces, significant financial issues or loss of dear ones. But despite everything they’ve been through, they are still alive and resilient.

“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” – there’s a lot of truth in this saying.

We are all telling ourselves different stories about our past experiences. It’s all about personal filtering and what we make things mean to us. But if we switch perspective and look back on our tough experiences as learning and an opportunity for growth, everything changes. Sometimes we win, sometimes we learn. We never lose, and there’s powerful learning through failure.

I wouldn’t say the loss of someone dear is an opportunity for growth. Let’s be honest with this one: it’s part of life, but it’s incredibly painful. But we can definitely learn from life experiences as going through a job loss and getting unemployed, going through a divorce or a separation from a romantic partner.

“What could I have done differently?”, “What am I taking with me from this experience? “, “What do I know today, that I didn’t?”, What’s the gain in pain?” – such questions are empowering because they liberate us from the conditioning of a victim (“Life is unfair,” “How could this ever happen?, ”Why me?”)

Let me give you two examples from my personal life and career:

I will never forget the day a dear friend of mine told me I sounded like a victim. At the time, I was outraged with a guy who obviously didn’t fulfill all my needs and my expectations in love. In other words, he broke up with me, refusing to fill up my cup with the precious things I didn’t know how to give myself: appreciation, self-care, and self-respect.

From previous romantic relationships that didn’t work out, I learned what I wanted from a romantic partner. I wanted to be with someone who is supportive, warm-hearted, intelligent and kind. I am thankful for experiencing “unfortunate” relationships in the past, and I am married to that wonderful man today.

What a blessing! Wayne Dyer was right: ”When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

So here’s what I learned:

I choose to believe we live in an intelligent, supportive Universe where things happen for my highest good.

My past has nothing to do with my future, and my old limitations do not define who I am. Today, I know that no one can hurt me or upset me without my approval. I am responsible for my actions, and my future is the result of my current choices.

Blaming others for taking our time, our money or our love is unfair because we always choose how much we give and to whom. Taking responsibility for the way we feel, act and think is true power. Looking back on the past with compassion instead of self-blame, without the need to punish ourselves for making mistakes and allowing ourselves to be entirely human.

Love,

Sara