A set of double-sided cards designed to help us become more confident in the face of adversity; short prompts on one side are accompanied by illustrative photographs on the reverse.

We often overestimate how fragile we are. In our nightmares, we assume that life would become impossible for us far earlier than it actually would. In reality, we could manage perfectly well with a lot less than we currently have. Not that we should want this to happen, of course: it’s simply that we could bear it. We forget our resilience in the face of risk and become unnecessarily timid. Our lives become dominated by a fear of losing things that we could in fact do without. This set of cards is designed to gently remind us that we are far stronger than we imagine.

Reminders for Resilience - Extracts from the Card Set

• 3 a.m. alone in bed is perhaps not the optimal moment at which to derive a true picture of reality. Wait – always – for the perspective of dawn.
• Things don’t need to be perfect; we are creatures eminently suited to ‘good enough’.
• It sounds heartless to say: ‘you’ll get over it’. But you will.
• The brain is designed to exaggerate troubles. We suffer more in our thoughts than in reality. 
• Loneliness may be more pleasant than the compromises of false community. 
• We really need only one counsel in the end: This too shall pass...
• Most of what we’ve ever learnt came to us in periods of suffering.
• You aside, no one is carefully keeping track of your idiocies.
• Rather than admire the new and pristine, we should make a cult of mended things.

60 cards in box | 100mm x 80mm x 22mm

The School of Life London, England