Springtime Resilience
With the changing of the seasons, the sun emerges, birds return to their songs, and (in colder climates than ours here in Los Angeles) the ice melts. Plants and animals wake up from their hibernation, ready for reinvigoration– their time of rest providing a necessary recharge. Humans are this way too. And while there are times where people do need to take rest, there are also times where rest is forced upon them. Periods of depression, elevated anxiety, or the shock after trauma are examples of the latter– times where movement has to cease to preserve energy. After the period of freeze begins to lift, true restorative rest would ideally follow, but in a fast-paced world, people are forced to keep moving forward, stuck in a state of survival while going through the motions.
Part of the reason some get more “stuck” in this state than others has to do with their access to an inner store of something called resilience. A person’s degree of psychological wellness has much to do with how well they are able to bounce back in response to stress and how long it takes to do so. This is resilience– the capacity to bend but not break, to stay internally rooted despite external chaos. But it doesn’t look the same from person to person! While we may have some degree of innate resilience, it varies greatly from person to person, as it is shaped by stable and caring connections and the capacity to adapt to life circumstances. Furthermore, some people are taught from a young age how to enact a resilient view of the world, while others need to build their capacity up later. Regardless of a person’s individual journey, they can make the choice at any point to continue expanding their sense of mastery and command of adaptive life skills. The key word here is “choice.” The power to create change lies within the individual, and when a person chooses to wield it proactively, the path forward is illuminated one step at a time.
This pathway toward expanded resilience is shady but dappled with sunny spots, and the one walking the path is anchored by a very specific skill: reflection. Transformation is fueled by equipping yourself with new skills, but all skills are useless until a person bravely examines the moments where they lacked a skillful response– when reactivity won out, dysregulation made matters worse, or they found themselves powerless. Growth happens when a person sees and creates the space to do something differently the next time. In this way, reflection is where the alchemy is– where the formula is studied, and the ingredients are adjusted.
Many think of resiliency as an ability– the capability to power through crisis with complaint-free invincibility. But this actually describes a survival response, which often is driven by a black-and-white, all-or-nothing frame of reference. Resiliency is more nuanced than this. It is a malleable capacity for flexibility that flows from experiencing the emotion, examining the present situation from all sides, and choosing the best way to proceed. When something unexpected or displeasing happens, a person with limited access to their inner fortitude might find themselves reacting, lashing out at others, or acting out in some other way. A reflective stance, on the other hand, is fueled by pausing to ask: How do I feel about this? What does it mean to me about others, myself, or the world? Now what? What do I need in order to move forward? Resilience is not just about enduring hardship– it’s about developing the capacity to choose a more proactive and intentional response while it’s happening.
When something traumatic or particularly stressful happens, the human ability to cope is overwhelmed, and the frontal lobe goes offline, allowing the more primitive parts of the brain, such as the fear center, to facilitate survival (fight, flight, freeze, fawn). When this occurs, complex thought, emotion regulation, and even language give way to biological reactivity and impulse. Reflection, on the other hand, gives a person the opportunity to identify insecurities, past experiences impacting the present, and the emotions arising as a result. By changing the internal dialogue to one of reflective growth, new outcomes can follow across a variety of different settings. Nurieli even describes reflection as the “pause that changes everything” (2025), including the way a person operates in the workplace, in relationships, and at home. The principle at the core is simple: honest consideration of all that lies below the surface shifts the mind from a place of reactivity to a space where intentional decision-making can happen.
Developing the skillsets that support resilience requires internal resources and energy. Depleted body states– like being hungry, tired, or sick– would leave anyone more vulnerable to an emotional flood, so a period of rest may be needed in order to really make the desired changes you wish to see. Even in nature we see this. Bulb plants, such as tulips, might lose their blossoms in extreme cold, but their bulbs are capable of surviving a heavy freeze. Their capacity to thrive again is preserved if they are given time to thaw naturally, without forcing higher temperatures, and if they are placed in well-nourished soil. The human psyche is much the same– allow yourself the time you need to thaw. And when Spring arrives, readiness will awaken the possibility of change. Of course, the path to learning active reflection is not an overnight journey, but with the help of a trusted therapist, it can feel more manageable.
Enlisting a therapist to support you in this endeavor is crucial, but in between therapy visits, building resilience is achievable through targeted skillsets. This Spring, Align is launching a resiliency-building skills group, which will be a 16-week educational group where participants can learn specific tools to enhance the way resilience shows up in their lives. Expanding this capacity is a balancing act of respecting emotional limits and challenging those limits with new behavior goals. The environment of a group allows participants to see that they are not the only one struggling to overcome the same wall they’ve been hitting for a long time. If you think this could be for you, get in touch today.
Interested in Joining the Skills and Resiliency Group? See More Here
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References
Cherry, K. (2025, October). The neurobiology of trauma. Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/threshold/202510/the-neurobiology-of-trauma
Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2015, March 23). The science of resilience.
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/15/03/science-resilience
Nurieli, K. (2025, December 8). Reflection builds resilience in life and work.
https://harmonystrategies.com/reflection-builds-resilience-in-life-work/
Only Humana. (n.d.). Resilience through reflection. Medium.
https://medium.com/only-humana/resilience-through-reflection-d61f9e71f63a
Southwick, S. M., & Charney, D. S. (2016). The science of resilience: Implications for the prevention and treatment of depression. Science, 352(6287), 1017–1018.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf9258
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4780285/
Sullivan, G. M. (2024, March). 4 small psychological shifts for your spring well-being. Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/friendship-20/202403/4-small-psychological-shifts-for-your-spring-well-being