Are Resilience and Spirituality Connected?

Is there a connection between resilience and spirituality? As we travel through life’s joys and sorrows, hopes, and fears, strengths, and adversities, how do we sustain meaning and our sense of self? And how do we respond as we navigate the challenges in our own lives and the world around us?

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Why even consider resilience and spirituality in the same sentence? Resilience is about our capacity to adapt, bounce back, or even thrive in the face of challenges, stresses, and adversity. Resilience is a common occurrence, each of us suffers adversities in our lives and responds to them in some way. Similarly, spirituality is also a universal human experience. Spirituality can be understood broadly as a quest for meaning, purpose, the sacred, or something larger than ourselves, offering perspective and a higher vista to view our existence (Manning and colleagues, 2019; Niemiec and colleagues, 2020). Notably, the content of spiritual beliefs, experiences, and practices are as varied as human diversity across this planet.

Spirituality can be secular or non-secular, religious or not about religion at all. According to modern psychology, spirituality is one of 24 character strengths common to humankind—across time, cultures, countries, and beliefs (Niemiec and colleagues, 2020; Park and Peterson, 2006; McGrath, 2017). Many studies show that spirituality contributes to human well-being, relationships, and meaning in life (Niemiec and colleagues, 2020). How and where we experience and express spirituality is as diverse as human experience from the outdoors, solitude, and mindfulness, to churches, synagogues, mosques, or other sacred spaces.

What does spirituality have to do with resilience? Spirituality can help us strengthen ourselves during tough times, and evidence indicates spirituality is an important component of resilience (Brown, 2017).

The term spiritual resilience is a relatively new construct integrating these two universal endeavors holistically. Research shows complex interconnections between resilience and spirituality (Manning and colleagues, 2019; Smith and Hesketh, 2015; Tuck and Anderson, 2014).

Spiritual resilience involves the capacity to engage our internal resources, including beliefs, strengths, and values, and also engage with external resources to support our sense of self, meaning, and purpose when we’re faced with life’s challenges and adversities.

Spiritual resilience can help you recharge your heart, mind, and inner self. No matter our background, we all have beliefs we lean on during adverse circumstances. Spiritual resilience can strengthen our humanity inside and out, it’s like an invisible set of sails that can help us remain upright or regain a sense of balance in life’s calms and storms.

Spiritual resilience can be an everyday occurrence and at times remarkably transformative, as an internal compass to help you guide yourself during life’s storms. Your spiritual resilience can help you strengthen your heart, mind, and spirit –live with greater purpose, and connect with others as well as to something larger than yourself.

Practicing self-compassion can shore up resilience and blend nicely with many spiritual traditions. Our vulnerabilities and adversities cannot always be kissed and made better, but self-compassion can strengthen our spiritual resilience. This practice may inspire your spiritual resilience as you face the winds of life.

Awakening Spiritual Resilience

1. Invite yourself to pause. Focus on a calming anchor to ground yourself, such as your breath, your hands, a sound in your environment, a picture in the room, or your outdoor view.
2. Consider a challenge you’re currently facing. As you think of this situation, gently notice your reactions, emotions, and feelings.
3. Offer yourself kindness, compassion, and words of comfort. If you can, simply observe your reactions, rather than judging yourself, the other person, or the situation. Remind yourself that you are human, part of the wholeness of humanity, vulnerable as all of us are.
4. Refrain from self-criticism. Self-observing may be enough right now. If it feels right, you might consider what you could learn from the situation and your reaction to it.
5. What might you want to further reflect on or what action(s) might you want to take?

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only. No content is a substitute for consulting with a qualified mental health or healthcare professional. © 2023 Ilene Berns-Zare, LLC, All Rights Reserved