THE RESILIENCE PROJECT [non-fiction]

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT | HUGH VAN CULUYENBURG | 2019 non-fiction

To be honest I had resisted reading this book. Not another self-help, gratitude guide exhorting me to be kind and mindful. But I had forgotten that I’d requested it at my library so when it popped up I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a go.

I read it in one sitting.

Thoroughly engrossed in the real-life stories of how Hugh came to start his business The Resilience Project, I couldn’t put it down. It starts with an exposition of his sister’s struggle with anorexia and Hugh’s teenage angst that all she had to do was eat and all would be well. This subject is explored in heartbreaking detail. He then goes on to reveal the premise for the book and the business.

Teaching at an impoverished school in India he meets a young boy who becomes his mentor of life. It seems that many poor people are actually happy with their lives. What a revelation! Here we are with pretty much everything that opens and shuts and we’re still hankering for more. We focus on what we don’t have; the Indian boy on the meagre things he does have. It’s humbling to realise that we can be so swayed by advertising and peer pressure to want more than we actually need and how we can feel so hard done by if we don’t get what we want.

The book then explores a number of interesting characters; people with disabilities or disadvantaged, or both and how they often have a different viewpoint on life and happiness. I found these chapters uplifting and more than once had a tear in my eye. His love of cricket and AFL are scattered through the book and a couple of reviewers have pointed out that if you don’t like these two sports then the book is not worth reading. What nonsense! The sport chapters serve to highlight the fact that happiness is where you find it, inside your own heart.

Hugh went on to found his public speaking courses The Resilience Project based on his triple empowering theory: gratitude, empathy and mindfulness (GEM). These three concepts are not new but are presented in a new way. His business is thriving and bringing happiness to thousands of people worldwide. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and have actually incorporated parts of the GEM model into my life since I read it and feel the better for it.