What do you do when you are faced with a big problem? Run, cry or stare? Depending on your answer, we can tell you whether or not you are a resilient person. But after all, what is resilience?
Resilience is nothing more than the human ability to overcome adversity, transforming difficult times into opportunities to learn, grow and change. Resilient people are not only able to mature emotionally, they are also stronger after the negative phase is over.
We separated 3 examples of resilient people who "ate the bread the devil kneaded", but who managed to come back and become world icons!
Nelson Mandela and the tireless fight against the Apartheid
Resilience is one of the most used words to describe Mandela.
After five decades of struggle, Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013) was elected the first black president of South Africa, but before that the leader of Black Africa fought against an intense and perverse regime of segregation and racial discrimination - the apartheid.
His strength and desire to help people who suffered from prejudice not only had repercussions on the African continent, but became an example for the whole world!
And even after 27 years old imprisoned in a tiny cell, only a few meters long to walk around and deprived of seeing his family for nearly three decades, Mandela did not look hateful. or desire for revenge when he was finally released, but a great serenity that was conveyed through his speeches that traversed the world:
"No one is born hating another person for the color of their skin, or their past, or their religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.".
Nobel Peace Prize winner (in 1993), Mandela is one of the clearest examples of human resilience.
Stephen Hawking and the fight against sclerosis
The most renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist of contemporaneity did not let his serious physical condition affect the success of his career, quite the opposite! In addition to having three children, a grandson and numerous awards received in recognition of his scientific studies, Hawking is a living legend when it comes to Physics and Cosmology!
But for those who don't know, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed at age 21 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a serious disease that gradually paralyzes all the muscles in the person's body.
More than 50 years after diagnosis, Hawking no longer has almost no control over his own body, but that never does. prevented him from continuing to work and extraordinary achievements - including participation in some television series and films!
Hawking had everything to live isolated in a dark house on top of a mountain, ignoring everything and everyone due to his physical condition. But the astrophysicist is a great example of resilience for having managed to overcome the adversities that arose throughout his life very well and to adapt fully.
Viktor Frankl and life during the Holocaust
World War II was one of the most macabre episodes of the 20th century and one of the most horrendous in the entire history of mankind. Imagine what it would be like to live in a concentration camp? Now imagine what it would be like to have to live in FOUR extermination zones?!
Austrian psychiatric doctor Viktor Frankl (1905 - 1997) experienced the hell of living in the skin for three years. four different Nazi concentration camps: the ghettos of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering and, finally, Türkheim.
After being separated from his mother, brother and wife, Viktor tries to remain calm and resist the horrors of the place by focusing on his work - with With the help of some sheets of paper stolen from the Nazi office, the psychiatrist began to write what would be his greatest book. success.
In 1945, the concentration camp where he was held is liberated by the Allies. As if all the suffering of recent years was not enough, Viktor discovers that his mother, wife and brother were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Even after all these tragic events, Frankl manages to overcome depression and get on with his life. He becomes one of the most prestigious psychiatrists in the world, being invited to teach at important universities, such as Harvard and Cambridge, for example.
Frankl is known for being the founder of Logotherapy, a branch of psychiatry that explores the meaning of the individual's existence and its spiritual dimension. In fact, Frankl's studies are closely related to the concepts of resilience... A mere coincidence?
"Anything can be taken from a man except one thing: the last of human freedoms - choosing your attitude in a given set of circumstances, choosing your own path" (Viktor Frankl).
Learn more about meaning of resilience.