I Started Resiliency School to Cultivate Peace in the Modern World

Sometimes life comes at you blow after blow. When that happens, how do you get up? How do you thrive?

- By Michele Smith

The last year delivered a series of unprecedented long-term challenges that brought us face to face with those questions: Collectively, we experienced disruption, isolation, and upheaval because of a global pandemic, and many of us are still struggling to process grief, civil unrest, financial insecurity, and uncertainty about the future.

That’s why in August 2020—after nine years of focused research on grief and resiliency—I answered the pull to share tools that nurture peace within us by launching the Resiliency School, an online training curriculum that leverages the practices of yoga and Ayurveda for building resilience. But for me, it was a long road to getting there.

When I was in my 20s, I had not yet faced loss beyond the passing of my loving grandfather, who had been a wonderful role model. I spent this decade exploring the world, accumulating real estate to rent out, and obsessing over manifesting true love. By my early 30s, my motivation ran full speed ahead as I climbed the corporate ladder, charging my way through a To-Do List for Life—checking off boxes I assumed would lead to happiness.