"Everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger" You've probably heard this phrase many times before.

The impermanence of things, the movement of life - in short, constant change - means that life is not a long, quiet river, far from it... The hallmark of a resilient person is to 'bounce back' after each ordeal. What could be better in these troubled times? It's a real strength that not everyone has, but one that can be acquired step by step, along the way. It's not going to be an easy road, far from it, but I believe it's essential, these days it's almost a question of survival...

Just think of what we've been going through for over two years now. A pandemic that nobody saw coming, a major economic crisis, war not far from home, shortages and supply difficulties of all kinds - in short, a bleak outlook and plenty of reasons to 'snap' at any moment. Not managing your emotions can cause enormous damage, both mentally and physically, in the short and long term.

In fact, the likely duration of this chaotic period, to say the least, means that we need to strengthen ourselves day by day in order to emerge, if not victorious, then at least as 'unscathed' as possible. I don't think anyone can get through such a slump completely unscathed, because today no one can say that they haven't been affected, to whatever degree, by the events that are unfolding. Nevertheless, working on oneself - my credo, as you will have gathered - can make a major contribution to strengthening the personality by giving it the tools to manage its emotions as well as possible, by preventing it from being too permeable to outside influences, by helping it to retain its free will so as to keep a minimum of distance from the events themselves and, even more so, from their various and varied interpretations. I think it's vital to stay on course as much as possible.

By this I mean that even in the midst of the turmoil, in the eye of the storm, it's essential to have a life goal, a vision of what you really want, and that this course must be kept in mind at all times. Nothing is easier or more dangerous than letting yourself float along with the currents, because that's an open door to manipulation. Manipulated human beings simply run the risk of losing their very identity, their very essence. The greatest conflicts have found their source in the mass manipulation of crowds weakened by disastrous situations, most often economic, leading them to believe that the first person to come along could provide the solution. Our era is different, because the experience of the past has borne fruit, or so I want to believe...

The open-mindedness brought about by the different currents of thought that have emerged in recent decades reduces the risk of mass manipulation, as it did in the past. Be that as it may, the work still needs to be done, first and foremost on an individual basis, to create or consolidate this much-needed resilience. Once this has been done, as we can already see, the energy released by these resilient beings will enable constructive gatherings, real positive egregores from which the whole planet will inevitably benefit.

I think it's extremely important today to teach resilience. The future is so unknown that only by working on ourselves, only by "self-centring" can we get through the chaos.

In Chinese, the idiom that represents chaos means both crisis and opportunity. In the middle of a crisis, like today, the opportunity part is not easily visible, but it's there. When I talk about 'self-centredness', I'm not advocating selfishness, at least not in the way the word is commonly understood. What I'm saying is this: when everything around us is shaky, the best thing to do is to work on ourselves, because we only have control over ourselves. This work of emotional reinforcement is both difficult and salutary. It's increasingly difficult to find answers and resources on the outside. Who/what can we trust in this welter of information, in this field of 'gurus' of all kinds? Human weakness or pusillanimity has been "exploited" since the dawn of time. This 'weakness of soul' is dangerous at any time, but even more so in times of acute crisis such as today. The feeling of no longer belonging, of being handed over to the media, to authorities of all kinds, to gurus... is extremely dangerous. On the contrary, you have to stay the course, stay the course! Anchoring is essential and alignment indispensable. And if you're not born with it, you have to work at it. It requires constant vigilance to notice discomfort, accept it and come back to yourself again and again.