Daily frustrations, careless mistakes, unforeseen, unnavoidable crises, and even intentional, premeditated evils–these are all part of the human experience. There is no way to separate being alive from the challenges of life. Now that we’re more connected to the world at large than ever before, these hardships are inescapable.

Everywhere you look is a circumstance that threatens to sink you. Over there is a tragic war, and over here is senseless suffering, and your order was delayed–again.

Now is as good a time as ever to cultivate resiliency. Whether you’ve had loads of practice navigating misfortune, or, fortunately, none, choose to master the art of bouncing back.

You are as un-quashable as you decide to be. You can hold much more than you believe you can.

(Really, doesn’t it take a person of superhuman strength and spiritual depth to know innocent people are dying one moment, and then chat congenially with your dentist the next, and then show up authentically for your family later on?)

Don’t you see now how resilient you are? How your refusal to give up is what has gotten you to where you are?

Sure, you’ve had times when you lost your shit. When it was so painful and frustrating that you crawled into bed and wept. When you yelled at your family about something inconsequential, like how stupid you think it is that low rise jeans are coming back.

Maybe sometimes you’ve doubted if you could, but then (haven’t you?) every time, you’ve carried on. You’ve hauled yourself up, and washed your face, and dared another thing to try to bring you down.

Deep down, you’ve already survived enough to prove to yourself you can’t be sunk that easily. So long as you keep channeling love, you’re bound to be buoyant–and brilliant.