What is self-renewal?
By self-renewal I mean resilient people are never satisfied with the status quo; they are always looking for new horizons. Another way of putting this is that resilient people are continually re-inventing themselves.
Many of you reading this article may recall someone you know who mysteriously gave up their lucrative job in banking, or law, or in industry and went on a trip round the world (or went on a retreat in India, or built a house, or started a charity, or retrained as a teacher, etc.). I can guarantee you that that person is well-equipped to handle life’s disasters. For one thing they have shown already is that they are able to give up their attachments and start over again.
More importantly, they are willing to break out of their comfort zones and take a risk.
How the ego blocks self-renewal
The ego can be over-attached to security and possessions. and fears risk. It prefers to stay with the safe and knowable. Over time it constructs comfort zones in which stagnation accumulates. When upheavals occur anxiety may be the result, leading to non-resilient responses to the emergency.
Paradoxically, these upheavals lead to change and self-renewal as the person learns to adapt to new circumstances. Learning occurs as the person gives up the false self, and digs deeper into their personal resources.
Developing self-renewal
If you wish to develop greater resilience develop the twin habits of self-denial and self-renewal. You can start by giving up something that you have become attached to. That could be a small habit or daily routine that doesn’t serve you any more. Then after that you can identify that new skill you want to learn, or new course, or start planning for that trip round the world…..
