Resilience is something of a buzzword at the moment in workplaces in the West. The cynical take is that it’s just businesses pushing responsibility for the stress they create back onto their workers. That may be the case in some places (not mine!), but resilience as a skill – or the idea that stress is a thing that can be addressed and managed is, I think, true.
While at university, a bloke named Dave encouraged me to think about my emotional state as not an entrenched driver of my actions, but as something that I could deliberately change through my actions. Whether by curating my set of inputs, or moderating my reactions to trials, or deliberately forming habits that are good for me, or reminding myself that there is a cosmic plan playing out, there were many things I could do to change how I felt.
So when I found myself in a particularly difficult phase, one of the tools I used to cope was to listen to hopeful music. Streams contains a mix of orchestral pieces and CCM songs (incl: Delirious & Michelle Tumes) that expressed mournful hope and helped lift my eyes towards the transcendent.
(A more modern, streaming equivalent would be this compilation from TGC.)
