18/10/2026
Psychological Elasticity
Resilience is often seen as being strong, forceful and unwavering. But the dictionary meaning, referring to materials, describes resilience as the ability to return to the original form after being bent, compressed or stretched; elasticity.
The conditioned self operates like a computer program: a stimulus-response mechanism. Something resembling the past presses a button, and the same familiar reaction runs.
The machine-like conditioning has no self-reflection or creativity. Within this automated mode, our reactions occur without our conscious awareness. Just the same repetition of strategies that once helped us cope, repeating over and over, even when the outcomes continue to be to our own detriment.
Over time we develop an internal narrative about who we are, based on our repetitive conditioned responses. So we end up formulating an identity around our conditioning, mistaking our programming for who we really are.
Psychological elasticity helps us to break free from the grip of conditioning, by allowing the possibility of being stretched outside of this limited and in a way, false identity, which in turn allows us to regain our creativity and access to volitional choices.
