The weather has finally brought some sunshine and it was lovely to get outside and start to plan the garden planting for this year. Last month we looked at planning with positivity and this month we will focus on growing, living and remaining resilient despite the challenges life throws at us. When it comes to resilience, nature can teach us so much. Trees and plants have developed over hundreds of billions of years, so they have a lot of experience growing and remaining resilient that we can learn from. The definition of resilience is being able to “bounce back” after difficult experiences, such as significant stress, illness or trauma.
Nature is a great role model helping us remain resilient and you can discover various ways that nature demonstrates this. Our natural world has to live flexibly, spreading and growing, taking advantage of its surroundings and responding as conditions change. When you go for a walk, you will be able to discover all the different places that nature calls home. You can find trees growing and thriving in cracks in concrete, on cliff edges, waste ground and in water. You’ll even find shrubs growing in the branches of trees like the Christmas favourite mistletoe. Trees in fact provide millions of homes for different types of life. For example, an oak tree is home to 1000s of species of plant and animal. And if you sit quietly, you can observe each tree in a forest, as if it’s a city, with each creature having its own place within the whole. This is inspiring for us too, helping us to grow, encouraging us to shift our perspective, be flexible, see fresh opportunities and even consider moving to new pasture lands.
Trees also demonstrate flexibility and resilience as they have to cope with the elements of wind, changing temperatures, drought, floods, fires, invasions of pests and disease. They can even be poisoned by toxins, struck by lightning, eaten, maimed or cut to the ground. It is surely inspiring to hear that despite those traumatic events, they have developed strategies to overcome their difficulties and remain amongst us. As Bruce Lee once said, “notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked while the Bamboo or Willow survives by bending with the wind”. Wind is something trees can’t control and feeling out of control is often at the root of many people’s frustrations causing feelings of failure, anxiety and relationship problems. Even mighty oaks experience hurricanes that strike out of the blue and shake their foundations. Instead, they have developed strategies to cope with gales or even benefit from them. Rather than putting up solid barriers that would pitch them against one of the strongest forces in nature, leaves and branches leave gaps that allow flows of air to pass through, lessening their impact. Many trees also lose their leaves in Autumn when windy storms occur most frequently. This flexibility is often the opposite to many manmade walls that funnel the air up and over creating eddys and wind tunnels. Solid barriers may in fact cause the wind to push the wall right over.
We may feel burdened down with worries just like spruce trees covered in snow. However their flexibility means their branches purposely bend downwards in winter to let the snow fall off. Amazingly the angle they hold their branches also supports other trees. Similarly other trees such as Rowan, can bend right to the ground and then ping back up demonstrating the ultimate in “bounce back ability”. Sometimes when life gets tough, you just need to let go of something negative as if you’re dropping a branch. Its sometimes positively beneficial to let go of a relationship or a job that is causing more harm than good. The plane trees in London do this by shedding bark to get rid of soot allowing them to breathe again and remain healthy.
So, to summarise the mindset to staying flexible is to expect that sometimes things go wrong and that stress is part of life. There is no such thing as failure anyway, only opportunities to learn. So learn to value all your experiences however much you dislike them at the time. Plus, it’s generally not the issue itself that’s the problem, but your response. Choosing a positive reaction is key. Aim to overcome challenges by focusing on solutions rather than the problem. Think about what you can do rather than what you can’t do. Rather than getting angry and frustrated and blaming yourself or others simply accept the situation and observe it, but don’t over-indulge in the negative thought. Thoughts don’t last forever and they do pass, especially if you’re able to distract yourself. Walking in nature, breathing exercises and mindfulness can be really good at helping you to remain flexible in your thinking and to respond to situations proactively when necessary, so that you can keep moving on and growing as a person.
By Katie James
With reference to Think Like a Tree by Sarah Spencer
Katie James runs Walking for Wellness groups in Bramley, Hampshire. The next walk is on Sunday 28th May. These are aimed at helping people build resilience by looking and learning from nature. If interested in coming along, please get in touch.