Resilience Cards

We often overestimate how fragile we are. In our nightmares, we assume that life would become impossible for us far earlier than it actually would. In reality, we could manage perfectly well with a lot less than we currently have. Not that we should want this to happen, of course: it’s simply that we could bear it. We forget our resilience in the face of risk and become unnecessarily timid.

Our lives become dominated by a fear of losing things that we could in fact do without. This set of cards is designed to gently remind us that we are far stronger than we imagine.

Examples

• 3 a.m. alone in bed is perhaps not the optimal moment at which to derive a true picture of reality. Wait – always – for the perspective of dawn.
• Things don’t need to be perfect; we are creatures eminently suited to ‘good enough’.
• It sounds heartless to say: ‘you’ll get over it’. But you will.
• The brain is designed to exaggerate troubles. We suffer more in our thoughts than in reality.