[1]GLORIETA, N.M. (BP)–With the ever-increasing demands on time and energy, resilience from life’s pressures is gaining greater attention in health studies.
“Resilience means coming back to your original shape after being pulled in many directions,” said Tommy Yessick, wellness consultant for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. “It means bending without breaking and bouncing back with a flexible strength.
“Why do some people survive in times of trouble and others don’t in the same situation?” Yessick asked participants attending a wellness workshop during the National Conference for Church Leadership at Glorieta (N.M.), a LifeWay Conference Center. “Resilience is the difference. Resilient people accept the setbacks and recover from them.”
Yessick told ministers, church staff and lay leaders that studies show resilient people live longer.
Characteristics of a resilient person include independence, a childlike quality, strong friendship networks, personal discipline, a willingness to dream, a sense of focus with a profound hope, realization that one makes a difference in their family, church and community and a sense of humor. Incorporating these qualities into one’s life, Yessick said, can make a significant difference in overall well-being.
Yessick also talked about commitments and the problem of today’s leaders taking on too many responsibilities.
[2]“When we decide to add another responsibility to our lives, we need to take something else away, rather than adding the new responsibility to the rest. That doesn’t mean that the part we remove is less valuable, but it means it won’t get the same amount of attention for a while,” he said.
The church leadership group and the pastor-staff leadership department of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored the National Conference for Church Leadership, July 10-14.
–30–