I was visiting friends and family in Los Angeles this past week, and when I returned home I brought an earache and sore throat with me. It’s never fun to get sick, but I was happy to discover that it only took a couple of days to return to my normal state — healthy and buoyant in both mind and body.

This turned my inquiry to the subject of resilience. The ideal life, at least for me, is not where nothing upsets or challenges me. I’ve come to see problems as part of the process. What is important is how quickly I return to balance. Resilience is a way of measuring your ability to bounce back. An example of this is when I went to the health club this morning and discovered, to my surprise, that my normal run had not suffered at all since before I became ill. In fact, it was stronger. My pace was more even, my mind more relaxed, and I was more able to dive into the moment and enjoy it.

This experience is not mine alone. There has been quite a bit of research on the importance of breakdowns. To build muscle tone, for instance, you work out one day and then rest the next. If you break the muscles down too much they never get the chance to recover. I think this is true in other areas as well.

Maybe we need to break down periodically, in order to come back stronger, leaner and more focused on our game. It doesn’t seem to matter if our game is sports, relationships, or business, as long as we know that achieving it makes us better in some way.

So, here we are on Christmas Day 2009, and since I don’t know where you are in your cycle of breakdowns into breakthroughs into breakdowns and so on, I want to encourage you to inquire into your own resilience.

If you are at the top of your game, then maybe this is a time to build some reserves. Perhaps you can use this time to build strength by not overdoing it, and getting the rest you need to deal with the breakdowns that have yet to arrive. In this way, you can develop resilience when you are strong, to use when you’re not.

If you are in the middle of a breakdown, or sense that one is coming, choose wisely what you do next. What actions can you take to bring balance to your internal system of health and well-being, and to your external support systems of work and family? 

Here are some ways to tune up your mental and physical systems and increase your resilience.

1. Measure your resilience — When you lose your focus, or your energy saps, notice how long it takes you to regain your balance. Make it a game to regain your mojo in the midst of the struggle.

2. Make what you do a sacred act — Rituals and sacred rites restore balance because the mind is diverted from worry to acceptance; from belief in a negative outcome to surrender to a higher authority. Find solace and fulfillment in what you do, not in some undetermined future.

3. Do one thing at a time — It’s been said a million times, yet we still try to take more bites than we can chew. Give yourself a break by giving your full attention to just one bite, one conversation, one goal at a time.

4. Exert yourself — I know. This sounds like the Puritan ethic, but it’s true. When you exercise just beyond your limits, or think just beyond where you are comfortable, a new energy comes into play. Challenge yourself to get up and out of the familiar, and try something new.

And most of all, enjoy the season you are in. From our family to yours... Have a great end, and a wonderful beginning to the new year.

In peace,

Michael