On this week’s episode of IMPACT, there are no guests, it’s just you and me. The topic of discussion for this episode is resilience. I wanted to unpack this very complex term because there are many layers to resilience and I think that it is something that every entrepreneur, every employee, every parent, every kid… everybody should have.
I discuss the factors that lead to substantial and robust resilience, most of which is developed at an early age. When my parents divorced, I flew back and forth between their homes since the age of 11. As if flying wasn’t nerve-wrecking enough, I had to fly by myself and those experiences helped me build a tremendously strong emotional and mental resilience because that ‘goodbye’ hurt every single time. It is the experiences we face when we’re younger that shape us into the people we are today. But we have to address our traumas instead of masking them.
Though some of us have had the privilege of having a home, a nice family, good friends, a full fridge, not everyone has those privileges. It is very important to be aware that people act a certain way based on their life’s circumstances. Empathy is something that we can and should develop in ourselves because not everyone has developed their resilience enough to endure their unfortunate circumstances.
Tune in, share with a friend, and leave a ‘like’ if you enjoyed this episode!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[3:35] Resilience is not simply the mental health piece
[7:38] Meghan’s own journey dealing with resilience
[12:20] Meghan hated being flown from one parent to another
[15:25] My resilience is my privilege
[18:23] We don’t know what happens behind closed doors to those around us
HOW TO CONNECT ME
Visit www.meghanwalker.com
Instagram: @drmeghanwalker
MEMORABLE QUOTES:
“Resilience is not simply the mental health piece, it is a spectrum; it’s how we set our physiology and our psychology up for success. And that means we challenge the system.”
– Meghan Walker
“If your physiology doesn’t have your back, it doesn’t matter how much positive psychology you throw at the table. The system cannot support the event.”
– Meghan Walker
“Developing resilience is not something we are necessarily born with. We may have a genetic predisposition to not fly off the physiological handle in the face of anxiety and stress. But that is simply a predisposition.”
– Meghan Walker
“I also know that this pattern of turning and walking forward and being able to move on to the next thing, that was part of my coping mechanism, and it’s part of the coping mechanism that I’ve carried to adulthood.”
– Meghan Walker
“I acknowledge that I have had access to things in my life that have afforded me a tremendous amount of privilege. But nothing has afforded me more privilege than accessing, experiencing, and witnessing evidence of my own capacity at a young age.”
– Meghan Walker
“The one thing I can share with you as a clinician, and I think it’s one of the most powerful lessons I took away from the clinical era of my career, is that lots of people, most people, have lots of shit you don’t know about.”
– Meghan Walker
“My question and call to action to you is: what and where in your life do you need to lean in on that resilience piece… On that physiological resilience… On that psychological resilience? What trauma would you benefit from unpacking?”
– Meghan Walker