2024: The Year of Resilience

Life continually challenges us. Some challenges are positives, presenting appropriate opportunities for us to learn and grow. Other challenges are just hard things that life throws at us: illness, injury, trauma, strife, loss.

Have you noticed that some people seem to absorb shocks better, bounce back faster, and somehow stay hopeful even when things are tough?

Those people are resilient. Everyone has resilience, but some have more than others.

Do we have any control at all over how resilient we are?

Can we build our own resilience?

I’ve been reading about this lately because it has implications for my own life. I am 61 at this writing and I want to be as active and joyful as possible as I age. To achieve that, I need to be more resilient than I have been in the past, physically and especially emotionally. So, like a good ex-academic, I studied.

Research shows that resilience is partly inherited, but not entirely. Some people inherit genes that boost resilience (lucky them). We also inherit situational factors like the environment in which we are born and raised. In those ways, we are dealt a hand of cards at birth.

BUT…research also shows that resilience has key ingredients that you can choose to increase.

5 Key Ingredients of Resilience

Self-awareness - Observing yourself: knowing how you expend energy, what your vulnerabilities are, what your strengths are

Self-regulation - Choosing your response to stress carefully, for best possible outcomes

Positive coping skills - Knowing which activities make you more resilient, and actually doing them on a regular basis

Optimism - Believing that things can and will be okay because you have all the strengths you need to prevail, even through very difficult situations

Social support - having friends and/or family who care for you, believe in you and support you

2024: The Year of Resilience

I am dedicating my work for the entire year of 2024 to building resilience in myself and others. My mindful dance fitness classes (online and in person), plus my writings and meditations, will be designed to help you build those 5 key ingredients of resilience.

“How on earth can participating in dance fitness classes and reading a bunch of emails help me get more resilient?” you ask. Well, by boosting those 5 key ingredients of resilience:

Self-awareness - My classes and content will help you observe yourself to learn about how you expend energy, what your vulnerabilities are, what your strengths are

Self-regulation - My classes and content will help you get better at self-regulation through mindfulness, calming techniques, and conscious choice-making

Positive coping skills - My classes will give you awesome low-impact exercise, a major resilience booster in itself - and my content will inspire you to explore other behaviors you might do more often to boost your resilience

Optimism - my classes and content will help you identify your inner assets and resources and take a strengths-based approach toward life.

Social Support - With regular attendance, either in person or online, especially if you stay for the after-class discussions, you will become a valued member of a community that supports you in your quest for resilience.

How resilient are you right now? Take this quiz for a rough idea.

Apparently I myself am only “moderately resilient.” What does the quiz reveal about you? Take my classes for a few months and see if your score changes.

Practicalities

I teach both online and in person. All of my classes are designed to build resilience. Here’s the schedule. All classes are shown on the same schedule.

In-person classes are held in my barn in Occidental, California. I also sometimes do pop-up classes in Los Angeles.

Online classes include 24-hr replay so you can dance along later (within 24 hrs of class) even if you can’t make the actual class time.

Pricing is the same for online and in person classes. You can buy a single class for $15, or lower the per-class price by buying a package.

“Content” is free and consists of emails, blog posts and recorded meditations. To get my content, subscribe to my email newsletter at bottom of home page and/or follow me on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

You can join this program anytime. There are no prerequisites and you are always welcome.

FAQ about my classes