Being resilient means being able to adapt quickly and become stronger through applied stressors.
We want you to elevate in all areas of health, to be able to handle harder challenges, and more importantly, for it to have a positive effect on your physiology.
The Physical
Have you heard the term Anti-fragility by Nassim Nichols Taleb? Anti-fragility refers to a system that gets stronger through stress. It is the system that continually adapts to its environment. More intelligence, more awareness, more feedback, more choice.
Unlike a flower that could die if you touch it, the human body will adapt and strengthen. If stress is applied, we will find a way to cope. For better or for worse.
The trick is to add beneficial stressors, accurately dose them, and be observant of the changes it has on our system.
Aspen aims to develop human beings that are more resilient; people that can handle increased stress and continue to achieve.
We want people to bounce back. We want to enable people not to be put out for 3 weeks due to the common cold, not needing 12 months off after a small injury, not having your emotions run rampant.
This is not a mind over matter, go hard or go home approach. In fact it is the opposite. It’s knowing when to tap out, knowing when to rest, knowing when to work, and be willing to work. Be willing to go through the fire for what is on the other side.
Not everything is easy, but the more challenging things you do the easier they will all become.
We want resilience. The ability to do it all, smile, laugh and enjoy the ride. The empowerment that comes from choice. Knowing that each obstacle in your life is there for you to over-come, or for you to choose a different route.
The Mental
The mental aspect of resilience is understanding that the failures in pursuit of achievement will be plentiful.
It’s about taking these failures and, instead of letting them consume you, allowing them to teach you.
Accepting that exposure to uncomfortable situations will ultimately make you stronger.
Example
If your feet are causing you pain and you’re using strapping tape, fancy supportive shoes, and actively avoid stressing them, you’ll be fast-tracking your problems exponentially.
The more we outsource, the more reliant we get. We aim to flip this, remove the comforts and create a stronger system.
Instead, we want to slowly but consistently expose stress to your feet so they adapt, change, and improve.
We need better sensitivity to understand the signs. We need dexterity of the foot and a good connection to the skin and nerve receptors. We need to practice walking barefoot on various textures. We need to stimulate through activities to regain strength. We need to stimulate and expose to create resilience.
Some refer to this quality as ‘taking off the band-aid’. We all have some form(s) of coping mechanism whether we are aware of them or not. We’ve put these mechanisms in place to protect us from our insecurities, past traumas/injuries, and fears. It’s what the body does, it adapts and creates habits.
Resilience, is looking in the mirror at these things and enduring the work that will make us healthier.
