Resilience (the book) Teaches You How to Bounce Back

Resilience. “Ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; elasticity; buoyancy.” From that definition, resilience is a much-needed strength for those navigating a life of chronic illness with its unending quality and repeated exacerbations.

Obviously, learning about resilience is of significant interest to me. Having lived with invisible disabilities for forty years, anything that can help me bounce back quicker from those recurring mild to severe flare-ups would improve quality of life. So I jumped at the chance to review this book. And I’m glad I did.

My review

Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster.  Linda Grant. New World Library, 2018.

Linda Grant shows us that our brains can be retrained to respond better to difficult situations.

Ms. Graham does an excellent job of simplifying scientific words and ideas into layman’s language. She gives us a treasure trove of practical exercises, backed up by scientific evidence, which aids us in learning to cope with those disruptive times everyone faces. Ms. Graham includes ideas for Barely a Wobble (the mail was late), Glitches and Heartaches, Sorrows and Struggles (minor crises or major catastrophe), Too Much (grief, unending illness, job loss). Be prepared to work, though, to get the most help from Resilience. Sometimes, for us dwellers, a Wobble may seem Too Much! She illustrates how we can regain our footing in each of these situations.

This book is also helpful for people who experienced stressful pasts: abuse, grief, extreme stress. Ms. Grant shows how current responses are linked to earlier memories, but she presents evidence that even those responses can be changed, and healthier habits can be learned.

Words from Linda Grant

Why the book?

“Because resilience is truly recoverable, I have designed this toolkit specifically as a brain-training program to help you strengthen your capacities to bounce back,” writes Graham. “You will find more than 130 experiential exercises that will train you — and your brain — to steady or right yourself no matter what is happening around you, to respond skillfully to the most common and the most challenging external stressors, and help you work through any negative internal messages you may be believing about your ability to cope with those stressors.”

One example

When you pull resilience practices together — mindfully practicing gratitude while walking in nature with a friend, calling on your compassionate friend to soothe the distress of any inner part — your resilience becomes almost unshakeable. You will be equipped to cope with anything and everything, and to trust that you can cope.

Video interview

Hear Ms. Graham introduce her book.

My close

So. I can highly recommend this book to you. It is a book to buy, underline, digest, and go back to again and again.