I don’t think many people understand how sophisticated military training has become in looking at individual’s needing to practice empathetic communication and resilence.

“Right, and I think you hit the nail on the head. We live in a world that is uncertain, that is stress filled. Essentially, we've moved from a local society to a global society where we're competing against everybody and everything at all times. In the military, has rightfully said hey, we've got to prepare for this; we've got to give people the resources, tools and tactics to be able to do this stuff. And I think in the rest of the world, we just kind of shrug our shoulders and are like yeah, go figure it out; work hard and you'll be okay.”

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We also tend to want to hide from stress when we need to be honest about our stress if we’re going to use it positively.

“The best way to handle challenges is to embrace the reality of what they are so that you know how to prepare for them, and you can respond appropriately to whatever stress and anxiety comes forth.”

It’s complex right? Because we are telling ourselves a lot of stories to make sense of the world.

“Humans are storytelling machines. It's what we survive on and we have both our inner narrative and our outer narratives. With our inner narratives, it's interesting because so often we're told to cultivate this inner story that goes against what our natural proclivities are.

Because our natural inner narrative, if you just think about it, is filled with doubt and insecurities and wondering if I can do this and wondering if I can take on that challenge. And often what we do is we sit there, and we say, oh no that's bad that's negative. If you're thinking like that you must be weak or not ready.”

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Photo credit: Hillary Montgomery

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