Keywords

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Individuals can break free of their morass and get through the void in order to triumph and learn to thrive again. Rex (Chap.6) refers to this as getting back on the “game-board of life.” Commitment is necessary to change, desire for transformation, and, in some cases, the need for intervention from a skilled therapist, a motivated mentor, or an effective coach. A person may be able to achieve substantial and sustainable change on his or her own. However, a professional helper may add the element of accountability to ensure the continuation and the transformation. In my volunteer work with incarcerated females, I discussed at length the importance of creating a healthy support network in order to help the released “ex-prisoner” to navigate through the many predictable hurdles new freedom will doubtlessly bring.

“What does meaning mean? It means being able to make sense of an event or situation. It means that one can eventually find some logic, coherence, or rational reasoning about what has happened” (Boss, 2006, p. 74). Beyond the questions asked in this book about resilience and relevancy, perhaps the overriding question must be asked about connections to one’s God. “It appears that during luminal moments—times when a human being comes to the edge of regular experience and senses the boundaries of life—God’s presence is most often felt” (Shapiro, 2012, p. 36). Creating new solid grounding in one’s life may involve connections with one’s acknowledged God. But even the atheist will do better forging lasting connections to other people.

What runs counter to helping a person regain his or her forward momentum is his or her own degree of pessimism. Through adaptation of the therapeutic ideas presented in this book, whether administered by a friend, a mentor, a coach, or a trained therapist, some aspects of the person’s pathology can be attenuated. The desirable outcome of partial transformation is movement toward complete change, as life involves living as a process. At least, achievement of the level of change a person would be happy with can be considered “complete.” Without doubt, every person is equally deserving of effort to help them along this process.

The internal struggles will always be present in any life. It is how effectively we deal with them that will define us and will evidence our resilience. By increasing resilience, we can more ably resolve life’s persistent problems. In turn, forging deeper connections to others, groups, causes, and other endeavors, we can improve our sense of relevance. It is the relevancy that matters most.