A Personal Beginning 🌲

As I stepped into 2026, I noticed a quiet sadness lingering beneath the surface.

I hadn’t achieved all that I hoped to in 2025.
I didn’t always show up for my family in the way I wanted.
I didn’t hit my revenue goals.
I questioned whether I was doing enough to expand, grow, and move things forward.

If I’m honest, I felt pretty down and out.

My mind started telling familiar stories, the ones about not being good enough, not doing enough, falling behind. I could feel myself slipping into repeating patterns of self-doubt and lack of self-worth. And in that moment, I knew I needed a reset.

So I did something simple. I went outside for a walk even though it was 7 degrees Fahrenheit.

I needed to ground myself in the world. I needed to feel my feet on the earth, the cold air on my face, and the quiet presence of something larger than my thoughts. I needed to step out of my head and back into my body.

And slowly, something shifted. Sometimes that’s what resilience looks like, not fixing, not pushing, not figuring it all out but pausing long enough to remember who we are beneath the noise.

So if you are feeling stuck right now…
If you notice yourself caught in repeating thought patterns or habits that no longer serve you…
If your nervous system feels tired, heavy, or overwhelmed…

This reflection may be for you. And perhaps, just perhaps, time outside could help you too.

Life can be hard sometimes.

• Not achieving what we hoped.

• Managing personal or family challenges that stretch us thin.

• Trying to be the parent, partner, caregiver, clinician—all at once.

• Feeling like we never quite do enough.

• Feeling overworked with less return.

• Navigating imposter syndrome.

• Holding grief, health challenges, uncertainty, and a world that often feels heavy.

The list goes on.

After more than 25 years as an occupational therapist, I’ve come to understand something deeply: challenge is not something we escape by “doing better.” It is part of the human journey. Hardships, losses, transitions, and uncertainty will enter our lives whether we are prepared or not.

And yet, there is still hope.

The “R” of Resilience: A Lens for the Future

Within the Rooted in Rhythm framework, the “R” of Resilience helps me look toward the future with steadiness and not just for myself, but for those I serve.

Resilience is not about toughness or endurance. It is not about pushing through or ignoring what hurts. It is about capacity; the capacity to adapt, reconnect, and grow while honoring what is real.

Resilience theory offers us a strengths-based framework that informs both development and intervention design. Researchers such as Marc A. Zimmerman and Kristen Brenner, along with earlier work by Fergus, have identified core contributions to resilient capacity in childhood that remain relevant across the lifespan:

• A loving relationship with an adult

• A sense of self-efficacy and perceived control

• Adaptive skills

• Self-regulation (including effortful control and executive function capacities)

• Access to sources of hope, faith, and cultural tradition

These elements remind us that resilience is not an individual trait. It is relational, contextual, and developmental.

Resilience as a Dynamic Process

Author Andrew Zolli writes that “resilience is rooted in our belief systems and values along with our experiences, genes, and our habits.”

Similarly, Michael White and Venkat Pulla define resilience as:

“A dynamic process of interactions between a child and his/her social and physical ecology that promote adaptation and positive outcomes despite adverse situations.”

This definition matters deeply for occupational therapy. It places resilience not inside the person alone, but within the relationship between person, environment, occupation, and community.

A Parallel Journey: Clients and Clinicians

I have always said that we, as OT practitioners, are on a parallel journey of growth alongside those we serve. We are developing, adapting, and changing right along with our clients.

The more we know about regulation, rhythm, nervous systems, environment, and meaning, the more responsibility we also carry to extend that understanding inward.

So if you didn’t achieve what you hoped in 2025, I want you to hear this clearly:

It will be okay.

Honor where you are.
Even celebrate where you are.
Life can be hard sometimes and that does not mean you are failing.

Occupation as a Path to Purpose

Within the Rooted in Rhythm framework, resilience is deeply tied to occupation, not productivity, but purpose.

I hope you have found a sense of purpose in occupational therapy. And if that is not how you are currently feeling, I hope you allow yourself the space to re-vamp, re-inspire, and re-connect with what brought you to OT in the first place.

Sometimes resilience requires not persistence but realignment.

For our clients, we support occupational goals that vary widely. In doing so, we build resilience through understanding and supporting:

• Occupations: activities of daily living, rest, sleep, work, and education

• Contexts: environmental and personal factors

• Performance Patterns: habits, routines, roles, and rituals

• Performance Skills: motor, process, and social interaction skills

• Client Factors: values, beliefs, spirituality, body functions, and body structures

These same domains apply to us as practitioners.

So How Do We Build Resilient Capacity in 2026?

Resilience is the recognition of our inherent wisdom and worth, cultivated through meaningful activity and a sense of self in relationship to the world.

Resilience arises when we are in resonance with others and with nature.

Resilience can be restored and acquired by returning to our roots:

• Through curiosity and understanding

• Through community and shared rhythm

• Through meaningful occupations

• Through restorative practices

• Through healthy habits and routines

• Through intentional connection with the natural world

Resilience often unfolds quietly within therapeutic sessions as we support clients through mastery that emerges via starts and stops, repetition, sound and silence, effort and rest across seasons of growth.

And resilience builds across a lifetime through our willingness to remain curious, creative, and adaptive when challenge enters our path.

A Closing Reflection

As occupational therapists in 2026, we are not meant to be unshakable.
We are meant to be rooted.

Rooted in rhythm.
Rooted in relationship.
Rooted in meaning.

May you find connection and spaciousness where you are met with compassion and honored exactly as you are in this moment. May you remember that your strength is not something you have to prove or earn. It already lives within you, shaped by your experiences, your care, your perseverance, and your willingness to keep showing up. Even when you feel tired or uncertain, you are strong, and your presence matters.

“Nature has a way of reminding us that all things, great and small, ebb and flow in rhythm with the heartbeat of her call.”
— Gabriella Goddard

In the end I am feeling ready to take on 2026 in all of its ups and downs. This is life folks. I am strong. You are strong. Sometimes we have to cultivate and nurture that strength to build that resilient capacity. I look forward to building and supporting my team, serving my community and finding strength in knowing that I am part of something bigger. Thanks for being here. Happy New Year 2026!

See you down the road,

Lisa Haverly 🌲

🌲UPDATE: I am thoughtfully revamping The Nature Superhero Network to better reflect where I am in this season of life and practice, as I continue to listen, learn, and seek meaningful ways to be of service to occupational therapists, children, and families. Stay tuned for more to come in 2026..in the meantime, you can see what is brewing by checking out what the new main page looks like right here.