Today we have our next installment of The Encouragement Exchange, a monthly series created just for healthcare workers.
If you’ve missed previous installments, you can find them all here. We invite you to not only read these messages but also share them forward — to a colleague, a friend, or anyone who might need a reminder that hope is always within reach. Together, we can create a ripple of encouragement throughout the healthcare community.
Emotional Resilience: Bouncing Back
“The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.”
– Psalm 145:14
If we are real with ourselves, we would say that some days feel like we are in leaky rowboat in a rainstorm and we just ran out of duct tape. You’re paddling hard, trying to stay afloat, and wondering if anyone else hears that slow drip-drip-drip of pressure building.
But we forge ahead with this mindset of emotional resilience, a justified stubbornness to succeed and overcome. To be sure, resilience is not perfection. It’s not having it all together. It’s that quiet decision to take one more step when you’d rather sit down. And maybe laugh a little, too, even if it’s just to keep from crying.
Turns out, emotional resilience isn’t about being tough all the time either, no, it’s about bouncing back. Not like a rubber ball, but more like a well-worn bungee cord. You stretch, you can be pulled, but you come back. Maybe slower, maybe softer, but you come back.
Some things to remember for the road of resilience:
- Call it out. What we don’t name tends to hang around. Call it stress, call it grief, call it burnout—naming it helps you deal with it.
- Find firm footing. Whether it’s a good habit, a quiet walk, a few deep breaths, or that one friend who listens well—find your footing.
- Rest like it matters because it does. You’re not a machine. Rest isn’t laziness. It’s fuel.
And if no one has said it to you lately:
You’re doing hard things.
You’re showing up anyway.
And that’s not just resilience — it’s strength.
Strength for today. Strength for tomorrow. Strength to lend to those who need a helping hand who might be in a tough spot. Strength when you enter your own valleys.
So, here’s to the quiet fighters, the tired helpers, and to all those who are determined to live their lives bouncing back.
May grace and peace meet you at every turn & angle,
Tobby E. Smith, PhD
Lead Chaplain, Paradigm Health Services
