SMART THINKER
Volunteering in an Indian village showed Hugh van Cuylenburg the three key ingredients for fostering resilience – and now he’s spreading the word.
Hugh van Cuylenburg has discovered the three ingredients for fostering resilience.
Hugh van Cuylenburg had been working as a primary school teacher when, in 2008, he spent three months volunteering in Ticksey – a town in the far north of India. The small desert village had no running water, no electricity and no beds – everyone slept on the floor of their huts. Despite this, Hugh was “blown away” by how resilient the people were.
One boy in particular caught Hugh’s attention. Nine-year-old Stunzin had no possessions apart from the clothes on his back, yet he was constantly cheerful and gushing about how great life was.
Meanwhile, back at home, Hugh’s sister Georgia had been battling a life-threatening eating disorder for almost a decade. Hugh couldn’t help but be struck by the dichotomy.
‘How is this possible?’ Hugh wondered. ‘This kid sleeps on the floor, while my sister grew up in Melbourne in a loving family and a nice home. I need to understand what these people are doing differently to what we do back home.’ So he watched as children voluntarily gathered at school 20 minutes early each day to partake in meditation and gratitude, and he saw how they went out of their way to be kind to others.
In Western society, we are often “so caught up with our heads buried in our phones” that we tend to miss opportunities to
practise such skills, Hugh noted. He concluded that three key principles – gratitude, empathy and mindfulness; which he refers to by the acronym ‘GEM’ – were what accounted for these people’s improved resilience.
When Hugh returned home, he was keen to share his findings. He went back to university and did his masters in education, focusing on GEM. There, Hugh was stunned to discover 35 years of research “screaming” that those three practices can lead to better health and improved resilience. He decided to distil his knowledge into talks, initially aimed at primary school students.
But Hugh struggled to get his idea off the ground, and one day found himself without enough money to even pay for a coffee. “I was completely broke,” he says. “It was devastating. I thought, ‘What am I doing?’”
While it would have been easy to throw in the towel, Hugh persevered. And a year later, he answered the call that changed everything. A principal phoned him, explaining that there was an event for 52 principals being held that day – but the keynote speaker had just cancelled. She asked if Hugh could fill in.
His talk was so well-received that by the next day, 43 of those principals had booked Hugh to come and talk at their schools.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is definitely going to work’,” he recalls. As demand for his talks grew, so, too, did his business. It went through a few name changes, until Hugh finally settled on The Resilience Project.
Hugh believes resilience is the “one thing that kids need more than anything” – and that practising GEM is a gateway to it.
The Resilience Project now has 10 employees – and in the six years since launching, Hugh says that they have reached
“Resilience is the one thing that kids need more than anything.” HUGH VAN CUYLENBURG
over 300,000 people. The Resilience Project app has been rated the number-one app for health and fitness in Australia. Meanwhile, in Townsville, the North Queensland Cowboys have partnered with The Resilience Project to support the delivery of the programme to 15 schools.
The project has expanded to New Zealand, where Hugh has delivered talks to BUPA in Wellington, MECCA cosmetics in Auckland and the Wellington Phoenix soccer team. He is also considering bringing the school programme to NZ schools.
Hugh recently embarked on a masters of counselling, so he can feel better qualified to help those who speak to him about their struggles after his talks. He remains humble about his achievements, and chooses to simply focus on the way his talks have affected people. That includes his sister, Georgia – who no longer suffers from anorexia, and practises GEM daily.
He also sees the effect on the legions of people who’ve attended his presentations. Nowadays, he speaks to everyone from students to professional athletes, having realised that his core message of fostering resilience resonates with all. That’s reflected in the thousands of “beautiful emails” he receives – which, to him, are the beacon of how far he’s come.
“The emails we get from mums who say they’ve tried everything under the sun [to help their child], and our three principles have helped? That, to me, is success.”