" Only through the night, you come to the morning, " wrote JRR Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings. " And nothing more certain, for it to dawn, the darkness must have passed, at least it is in this world.
Every person has ever had a situation that they cannot change, which has surprised them and hit them hard. This can range from job loss, eviction, separation, or death. Or simply find yourself in an environment that, could suppose that said person only has a possibility of leaving outside the law and society.
This is the case that has happened to the artist and businessman Daddy Yankee, who lived throughout his childhood in a poor neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Place of drugs, alcohol and violence. To overcome that, he dreamed of playing in the major baseball leagues in the USA. However, a bullet that he received in his femur in a fight of one gang with another, his dream was shattered.
Two possible options in the face of adversity
When a dramatic situation occurs in life, you can choose to have one of these two attitudes:
- Put the focus on the negative effects of what has happened. Even reaching a posture of "victim" to what happened. If this had been the case, the great icon of reggaeton would have been left with bitterness and deep disappointment that what he wanted most was no longer possible; that there was no way out for his life. Pay attention to the fact that a person is active and strong and has the natural ability to resist and remake himself in the face of adversity. Based on this attitude, the artist emerged. Daddy Yankee looked for something that he also liked, such as music and composition, and he headed there.
It really turned an adverse situation into a successful one.
And that is not done by denying what happened, hiding and lamenting or wishing for what was lost. But accepting that it is a hard experience but that it involves becoming aware and restructuring the way of understanding, seeing and facing the world.
It is a key moment to build new value systems and therefore a new life.
Adaptation to adversity: resilience
According to some psychologists, it is natural, important, and helpful for people to accept and not oppose adverse experiences. Since from there arise the normal adaptive processes of every human being.
From this concept of adaptation appears the word "resilience" which means the capacity of every human being or group, to resist and remake itself in the face of adversity, projecting itself in the future despite destabilizing events, or trauma or difficult living conditions.
It is actually the ability to maintain a stable balance throughout the process without affecting your daily life and performance. Unlike the recovery that involves a gradual return to normality.
Through resilience, personal resources and the potentials that allow facing an adverse situation and emerge strengthened despite being exposed to risk factors are emphasized.
The Orientals would give the bamboo attitude as an example of resilience. Since it is a plant that adapts to changes, not opposing the winds and being carried away by them. Even adapting to changes in the river bed, becoming more flexible and thus being able to stay despite them.
Changes produced capitalizing adversity
If the person knows how to capitalize on the traumatic event, three types of transformations can occur:
- In self-perception, obtaining greater strength, control, feeling of experience and personal reaffirmation. In interpersonal relationships where a greater emotional openness appears, an acceptance of help and social support and deeper feelings of family union. In life in which other types of values appear, new priorities, and a greater social and ethical commitment.
It could even be considered that overcoming and growing from a traumatic situation is equivalent to what happens to the worm that locks itself in its chrysalis to end up being a butterfly.
