Vishü Rita Krocha
Over the weekend, few schools gathered at the Assam Rifles Public School, Kohima to learn about Resilience, which is an innate human capacity that can be learned and developed in anyone. The event was an initiative of the ‘Project Empathy’, and organised around the theme, “Building Resilience: Empowering Students for Life's Challenges”.
‘Project Empathy’ believes that by promoting resilience, they are equipping students with lifelong tools to face challenges, overcome obstacles, and thrive in all aspects of life. The primary goal of the Project is to instil resilience in students, considering the increasing level of stress and anxiety even amongst children as young as 11 to 12 years of age.
Then, there is the digital world that these young children are confronted with every single day especially in the form of Social Media where other lives look a lot better than theirs. These constant everyday battles can easily lead children to depression and as the Project Empathy states: “It puts an end to their dreams and aspirations and a never ending trail of trauma begins for their family members.”
Given the circumstances, the importance of cultivating resilience from a young age has never been more important than now. Somebody had once said, “resilience is single-handedly the most important characteristic to have if you want to be successful in life.”
Resilience, as it turns out, isn’t about being the smartest but being able to go through the most difficult times and still have the will to keep moving forward. To have attained resilience, one would also have been through some kind of hardship or the other. As a young student, perhaps, he/she has been picked on for whatever reason. The ability to rise above such a situation, maybe not in his/her first attempt or not even in his/her second attempt, but even after several attempts, if he/she has succeeded to stand for himself/herself, then he/she would have said to experience resilience.
Just because many incidents in our lives start out as painful moments, it does not also mean that they have to remain that way. The ability to get through something difficult always provides one with grit and a newfound strength that one never knew existed in them.
As a matter of fact, the spirit of resilience that human beings carry within themselves is truly a marvellous thing. The real test of this human potential is tested only when we are faced with adversities and challenges but there is no denying that we are all strong in different ways. We can all grow our resilience by choosing and practicing the actions, behaviors, and attitudes that make us strong, and also the ones that we struggle with.
When schools recognise the importance of their students’ social and emotional well-being, they are also promoting resilience in students because clearly, educators play a crucial role in helping children develop the ability to persevere through difficult circumstances both in school and life.
But then again, it isn’t just children who need to cultivate resilience in their young lives. Even as adults, may we all endeavour to develop the culture of resilience in our everyday life!
This is a guest editorial by Vishü Rita Krocha. She is the Publisher of PenThrill Publication and a senior journalist based in Kohima.
