Resilience in today´s world

A few days ago, I had the privilege of facilitating a workshop at Antipodean (www.antipodean.de) that invited participants to rethink what resilience really means in the world we live in today.

Too often, resilience is framed as a fixed trait, something you either have or you don’t. But we challenged that.

We explored resilience as an active, evolving practice, something we grow, nurture, and share. Together, we looked at how resilience plays out across 3 dimensions:

✨ Individual Level – How we care for ourselves
We spoke about practices like journaling, breathwork, and meditation, but also about less conventional ways of caring for ourselves:
- finding a safe space to scream and feel your strength,
- or simply listening to “your music” and allowing yourself to feel the sadness.
Resilience starts with honoring what we feel and how we heal.

🤝 Relational & Community - How we lean on and show up for one another.
We talked about resilience by validating lived experience and highlighting the importance of sharing, for example, after a miscarriage, with others who have gone through the same.
- Look for your community on Meetup, Instagram, or wherever feels right. Whatever adversity you’re going through, you are not alone. During her breast cancer treatment, my sister found support (including first-hand medical tips) in a Facebook group, beyond what any of us could offer her.
And if that group of people doesn’t exist yet? Create it.

⚖️ Structural & Transformative
The ultimate resilience practice is working to reduce the adversities that force us - or others - to be resilient in the first place.
That means tackling inequality and social injustice.
In other words: activism, in all its shapes and forms.
- Choosing a local bookstore over Amazon
- Speaking up when you witness discrimination or so-called "jokes"
- Joining marches and movements for change

If you don´t know where to start, check "80 Tiny Moves to Stay Sane", by Paul T. Shattuck, pick 3 and and start today !

The few quotes that stayed with me:
- Reach out to someone older than you. Ask what they’ve seen before.
- Write a legacy letter. Not for ego, for clarity.
- Check on someone who might be isolating. No agenda. Just presence.
- Keep a screenshot folder called “I’m not imagining this.” Fill it when needed.
- Ask someone younger what they’re seeing. Listen. Don’t correct.

And you, how your resilience practice looks like ?