Illustration by Cyrah Dardas
“Like a small creature and its shell, we are born with resilience. It comes from within us and grows in us throughout our life. Our resiliency is uniquely our own. It can never be lost or taken and there will always be enough.”
- Cyrah Dardas, PIE Teaching Artist
COVID-19 has more implications for our education system -- and our lives -- seemingly every minute. In response, we’re leaning into our mission to support and inspire individual and collective processing. PIE is taking a moment to feel, to question and to reimagine. We’re observing this pause as an opportunity to connect with ourselves and others, to truly feel our universal kinship. As such, our team has created some tools for revisiting the concept of resilience in this unprecedented time of uncertainty. We invite you to join us in using these tools to cultivate a practice.
“Resilience is our ability to connect and cultivate our innate aliveness.”
resilience
A vital component of the Rida Institute is reflecting and planning around resilience. We are mindful of its association with ideas like grit and how it can often be framed to make marginalized people responsible for their own oppression. To re-imagine the way we practice resilience, we glean insight from Alta Starr, a writer, organizer and lead teacher at Generative Somatics.
Her definition, “Resilience is our ability to connect and cultivate our innate aliveness,” reminds us that it’s something we have within ourselves and asks us to move beyond the idea of resilience as just survival. It invites us to tap into what makes us feel alive.
a practice
Below is a collection of tools for supporting your resilience practice. We made it for you, your students, colleagues and loved ones. Adapt it, reflect on it and document (maybe creatively) what comes up.
Join us as we read a collective poem as an opening, grounding practice:
Explore resilience with our video overview and zine:
Produced by Nate Mullen
Designed by Cyrah Dardas
Remember: We are in a particularly overwhelming and sensitive time. Give yourself grace and permission with this practice. What feels right for you at this time is right.
PIE Team on Resilience
Listen as Cyrah, Siobhan, Nate and Erin respond to what makes them feel creativity, awe, hope & love: