Learning how to retrain your brain and boost resilience is crucial to your mental and emotional health. Resilience is the ability to endure difficulty and recover from challenging life events. Being resilient in no way means that individuals don’t encounter difficulties, tremendous pressure, emotional distress, and pain.
Often, people associate resilience with mental ruggedness, but it includes wrestling with, managing, and getting through emotional distress and anguish.
What is mental resilience?
Have you ever found yourself wondering how some people have greater mental resilience? They seem to cope with adversity, traumatic events, or significant life changes and bounce back with more vitality than ever.
Building resilience can help you face all types of challenging life experiences: a job loss, a critical illness, the loss of a loved one, an act of violence, or any stressful event.
Many people react to these difficult situations with strong emotions and a sense of uncertainty.
Yet, we all know someone who seems to adapt better to challenging conditions than others. These people have developed a process and take several steps to cope effectively with problems and setbacks.
How do they accomplish that? It all comes down to what psychologists call “resilience.”
So, what makes them different?
Resilient people aren’t exempt from having negative thoughts and emotions. But, they have learned how to use coping techniques that help them navigate through times of crisis. They’ve developed the ability to balance their negative thoughts and emotions with positive ones.
Being resilient doesn’t mean that you’ll avoid complex challenges or adversity. It’s often learned by experiencing emotional distress.
By now, you’re probably wondering…
Why is it necessary to boost resilience?
Boosting your mental resilience helps you to:
- Cope better with stressful situations
- Manage your emotions better
- Prevent burnout
- Stay productive
- Reduce depression and anxiety
- Avoid stress-related illnesses
- Boost career success
- Have more personal satisfaction in life
- Be more joyful.
Sooner or later, we all encounter a significant change, a challenging situation, or a significant setback. Unfortunately, these are an unavoidable part of life. While some of these challenges are minor, others are much more difficult.
But let’s be honest, how do you deal with things like:
- The loss of a job
- Unexpected changes
- Financial problems
- Major illness
- Natural disasters
- Traumatic events
- Medical emergencies
- Divorce
- Or the death of a loved one
All play a significant role in your long-term mental, emotional, and physical symptoms.
Without the proper skills to deal effectively with life-changing events, you can become overwhelmed and find yourself stuck in an endless loop of torturing emotional and mental turmoil.
Many times, using the wrong kind of coping skills is dangerous. It makes recovery slower, and it can prolong stress-related illnesses.
So, let’s dig a little deeper.
Resilience is like a psychological reservoir
I want you to think of mental resilience as a psychological reservoir that people can draw from when encountering complex challenges, stressful situations, and traumatic events. Resilience uses this source to deal with adversity, rebuild emotional stability, and move on with life faster.
By now, you’re wondering how they can do that.
Mentally resilient people aren’t looking at life through rose-colored glasses, and they aren’t exempt from difficulty.
They look at adversity from a realistic perspective, understand that stuff happens, and know that challenges and setbacks occur.
They realize that life isn’t “fair,” and sometimes it can even be excruciating.
Their pain, grief, and sense of loss are just as deep as others. However, their mental outlook helps them to face the issues head-on, be determined to conquer adversity and strive to grow forward with their lives.
Amazingly, even after encountering seemly impossible situations, they not only recover, but they’ve learned how to use adversity to make them wiser, stronger, and better.
How to boost resilience
While everyone has a certain measure of resilience linked to their genetics, anyone can improve their resilience skills.
You can learn to be more flexible in your thinking, be open to seeing different points of view, improve your problem-solving skills, and move forward despite your obstacles.
Mental resiliency hinges on having an optimistic outlook. In his article “10 Traits of Emotionally Resilient People”,
Brad Waters says,
“Those who master resilience tend to be skilled in preparing for emotional emergencies and adept at accepting what comes at them with flexibility rather than rigidity–times are tough, but I know they will get better”.
But I’m jumping ahead.
What exactly is resilience?
Let’s look at several reliable sources to find the answer. Most people would look up the word “resilience” in a dictionary.
Well, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience in the physical sciences as “the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress”.
But hang on a minute. Frankly, we’re not talking about physical resilience, are we? We’re discussing psychological resilience. What’s the difference? They don’t operate in the same way.
After a life-changing event, you can never “bounce back” and “recover” your original shape… it’s impossible. Why?
Because these kinds of experiences will change you on a profound level, there is no way you can go back and be like you were before the event. You will never be the same again.
In reality, you’ll be bent out of shape or decide to do more than recover and transcend the challenge. Those are your only two options. So, mentally processing the feedback from challenging situations and failures can help build resilience.
Now, back to our definition as it relates to our mental and emotional resilience.
Webster’s dictionary gives us a better definition of resilience: “the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity” or the “ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy”.
Ok, so let’s dig a little deeper. There’s been a ton of research on resilience. According to the American Psychology Association’s definition,
“Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.”
The definition of “Psychological Resilience” given in Wikipedia opens our understanding a little further. Events that disturb our “internal and external sense of balance” can often present “challenges as well as opportunities.”
Resilience is the integrated adaptation of physical, mental, and spiritual aspects in a set of “good or bad” circumstances”. Events that disturb our “internal and external sense of balance” can often present “challenges as well as opportunities.”
Resilience: Purpose and Self-Confidence
Remember that reservoir I talked about earlier? It has two streams that flow into it. One of those streams is “Purpose,” and the other is called “Confidence.” Author Hara Estroff Marano writes in her article “The Art of Resilience” makes an interesting statement,
“At the heart of resilience is a belief in oneself—yet also a belief in something larger than oneself. Resilient people do not let adversity define them. They find resilience by moving towards a goal beyond themselves, transcending pain and grief by perceiving bad times as a temporary state of affairs.”
And that’s not all…Those who study emotions found that there is a connection between positive emotions and overall well-being. Barbara Fredrickson, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina and world-renowned researcher says in her book Positivity:
“While depression may be viewed as a downward spiral of negative emotions, well-being offers just the opposite: an upward spiral of positive emotions.”
Boost resilience to cope with stressful situations
First, resilience is a necessary skill for everyday life. Understanding the psychology of resilience and how to cultivate it is essential. Being resilient helps you learn to cope with stressful situations in life and work, manage your emotions, prevent burnout, and stay productive.
Second, it’s beneficial to your health. The World Health Organization named stress as a health epidemic of the 21st Century. The research found a link between stress and an increase in diabetes, heart disease, disability, absenteeism at work, substance abuse, and premature death.
Now that I’ve covered the definitions, we’ll check out the different types of resilience, along with very brief descriptions.
Let’s get started!
What Are The Different Types of Resilience
1. Physical Resilience
First off, we have physical resilience. One expert describes it as “the body’s capacity to adapt to arising challenges, maintain stamina and strength in the face of demands, and recover efficiently and effectively when acutely damaged or microbially besieged.”
Wow, that’s packing a lot into a definition. I know you’ve heard it all before, but it’s still true. There are three simple techniques to build your physical resilience:
- Exercising regularly
- Eating right
- Getting a sufficient amount of sleep.
2. Psychological Resilience
Next up is psychological resilience. In a guest editorial in “Stress and Health,” Ian de Terte and Christine Stephens tell us that “those who have psychological resilience can successfully cope with a crisis and return to pre-crisis status quickly.”
Dr. James Neill, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Canberra, says Psychological resilience “refers to an individual’s capacity to withstand stressors and not manifest psychological dysfunction, such as mental illness or persistent negative mood.”
Stress expert Elizabeth Scott, MS, describes it as “one’s ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. More resilient people are able to “roll with the punches” and adapt to adversity without lasting difficulties; less resilient people have a harder time with stress and life changes, both major and minor.”
3. Spiritual Resilience
Let’s look at spiritual resilience for a moment. It involves strengthening a set of internal beliefs, principles, and values. Holding these beliefs and principles gives a sense of purpose and direction in one’s life.
These values help to bolster determination to overcome obstacles and achieve goals in line with an individual’s perceived purpose.
The official blog of the U.S. Airforce says that “Spiritual resilience is defined as the ability to sustain an individual’s sense of self and purpose through a set of beliefs, principles or values26.”
Clinical psychologist and writer about the intersection of spirituality and psychology, Robert J. Wicks, writes in his book “Spiritual Resilience: 30 Days to Refresh Your Soul” describes spiritual resilience this way;
“Spiritual resilience is not simply about recovering from adversity. It is about bouncing back in a way that deeper knowledge of both God and self may result. With the right guidance, during difficult times and periods of confusion, pain, and stress, we have a unique opportunity to nurture our relationship with God and enable it to grow in surprising ways.“
4. Leadership Resilience
Today’s leaders must be able to navigate the underlying dynamics of their organization effectively. Resilient leaders can be calm during times of uncertainty, bring clarity in an atmosphere of rapid change, make difficult decisions, and deal with the complexities of the organization and personal relationships. Professor Jill Klein says resilient leadership “means handling adversity with greater skill, reducing stress across your organization, and uniting your team.”
Resilient leaders must work from a platform of self-care. They must know how to care for themselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically. These traits enable them to lead effectively from a position of strength and sustain their leadership efforts over time.
The “Resilience Group” expresses it this way,
“Resilient leaders are able to bounce back from adversity and adapt to new circumstances. They maintain a strong leadership presence and confidently transition into new roles and responsibilities.”
Now, stay with me. We’re almost there…
5. Organizational Resilience
Regardless of the size of your organization, resilience is crucial.
BSI is a global leader in showing organizations how to improve performance, reduce risks, and create sustainable growth. BSI defines organizational resilience as,
“the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond, and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper.”
Believe it or not, organizations, groups, and churches can learn to be resilient, just like individuals. George S. Everly, Jr., an American psychologist whose writings significantly shaped the fields of psychological crisis intervention and human resilience, makes a great observation about organizational resilience.
In Everly’s post in the Harvard Business Review, he notes, “Our observations have led us to believe that, just as individuals can learn to develop personal traits of resilience, so too can organizations develop a culture of resilience.”
Ok, finally !!!!
6. Climate Resilience
The UN Climate Resilience Initiative A2R is an initiative to anticipate climate hazards, create the capacity to absorb shocks and stressors to the environment and reshape the development pathways for economies to reduce risks and vulnerabilities. The reasoning behind this initiative is to promote the management of physical infrastructure and ecosystems.
The Wikipedia article defines Climate Resilience this way.
“Climate resilience can be generally defined as the capacity for a socio-ecological system to: (1) absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and (2) adapt, reorganize, and evolve into more desirable configurations that improve the sustainability of the system, leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts”.
While I am sure there are others, these examples give you an idea of the diverse definitions and resilience applications.
Okay, now let’s get back to the topic of how to build personal resilience.
The key elements to boost resilience
For some people, resilience seems to come naturally. In fact, according to some experts, resilience is ordinary, at least to some degree. (I’ll show you one reason why in a moment).
This natural ability allows them to remain calm and relaxed in the face of some challenging situations. But, unfortunately, this ability isn’t something everyone is born with but must be developed.
Other factors influence the outcome of personal resilience. This includes the type, frequency, and duration of previous challenges and difficulties, as well as your personal history of successes or failures and your physical well-being.
Remember, the emotional and spiritual elements of resilience are as essential as the physical ones. Resilience is not about eliminating stress or avoiding difficulties. It’s about learning to deal with them effectively.
Personal Resilience centers around three areas of control:
- Personal Self-Control – The ability to control your own emotions and actions.
- Event Response Control – The ability to select, modify, shift your attention, or change your way of thinking about the event through cognitive reappraisal.
- Relationship Response Control – The ability to control your responses in interpersonal relationships. Know your triggers, be mindful of the interaction or relationship’s goals, pause before reacting, and refuse to be defensive, reactive, or victimized.
How can you boost resilience?
Boosting your mental resilience to a great degree hinges on building your character.
Resilience begins with self-awareness. Cultivate the ability to recognize what triggers your negative emotional responses immediately. Be present at the moment.
Keep tabs on how you react mentally and physically to situations and how you’re displaying this to others. The better you understand yourself, the better you’ll understand others. Self-control can genuinely help increase your confidence, improve your overall attitude, and improve your communication skills.
Discover your values. Find things that motivate you, and this will impact your attitude in a positive way when you’re facing a complex or demanding situation. Having a sense of purpose in life will help to strengthen your perseverance and resolve. Self-confidence will help you keep your anxiety under control.
Train yourself to deal with and function in chaotic situations—work toward developing your problem-solving skills and learn to resolve challenges quickly.
Cultivate the ability to deal with others graciously in stressful situations and work toward establishing strong relationships with others at work, home, and church. This technique fosters accountability and serves to bolster courage when facing challenges.
Reframe situations and boost resilience
Resilience has a lot to do with your mental attitude and the ability to re-frame difficult situations. One of the first things you should do is discover the barriers, attitudes, and mindsets standing in your way to becoming more resilient.
But, first, a warning. If you want to build your resilience, then you may find that you’ll need to change your way of thinking.
Begin by asking yourself these questions:
- Do I maximize the negative aspects of a situation?
- Am I inclined to predict a bad outcome?
- Do I tend to nullify the positive indicators of an issue?
- Do I frequently overgeneralize situations by using the words “always” or “never”?
- Am I over-analyzing things and finding myself picking them apart?
- Am I too harsh toward myself and express unwarranted self-criticism?
- Am I too rigid in my thinking, obstinate, and resistant to change?
- Do I tend to be a perfectionist?
- Am I guilty of “binary thinking”? If it isn’t perfect, then it’s a failure.
Basic Mental Resilience Skills
Here’s the exciting thing… almost anyone can learn to be more resilient by mastering the necessary resilience skills. What are they? Let’s find out.
The key elements that aid in building resilience are:
- Having an optimistic outlook
- Learning how to re-frame your challenges
- Having high emotional intelligence
- Managing emotions effectively
- Having an internal locus of control
- Maintain a positive view of yourself.
- Having confidence in your capabilities
- Having trusted social and personal support
- Having good problem-solving skills
- Making reasonable plans and following through
- Viewing yourself as a fighter, not a victim
Neurology and Mental Resilience
There is still much to be learned about the neurological aspects of resilience. What we do know is that psychological stress alters your brain functions.
When you encounter a stressor, your brain reacts by determining if the situation is something you can adapt to or harmful.
Depending on what your mind chooses about that information, it sets a series of psycho-biological mechanisms into action. These affect other areas of your brain and things like your cardiovascular and immune systems.
What does all this mean?
King’s College London compiled an analysis of numerous studies to help understand the neurobiology of resilience.
In their review, the researchers found that specific neural, neurochemical, genetic, and epigenetic components can affect the level of vulnerability or resilience based on an individual’s reactions to bad stress.
In studies connected with neurobiology and resilience conducted by B.S. McEwen and E. Stellar found that the following neurochemical systems responded to acute stress: Cortisol, Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH), Locus Coeruleus Norepinephrine, Neuropeptide Y (NPY), Galanin, Dopamine (DA), Serotonin (5HT), Benzodiazepine Receptors, Testosterone, and Estrogen.
And that’s not all.
According to an article written in the “Journal of Behavioural Medicine” called “Adapting To Stress: Understanding the Neurobiology of Resilience,” expert researchers examined “hormones, neuropeptides, neurotransmitters, and neural circuits associated with resilience and vulnerability to stress-related disorders.”
This ongoing research may, in their words, be “useful in the creation of a stress-resilient profile.
Additionally, identification of the underlying neurobiological components related to resilience may contribute to improved approaches toward the prevention and treatment of stress-related disorders37.”
Here’s the point. This kind of research might bring us closer to finding how to prevent and treat stress-related psychiatric conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) shortly.
How Special Forces Boost Resilience
Those serving in the Special Forces undergo weeks of severe emotional and physical stress called SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). Their training is in four phases: classroom instruction, evading capture and confinement in a mock POW camp, and debriefing.
During this training, they are subjected to sleep deprivation, bitter cold, darkness, excessive hunger, abusive interrogation, and grueling exercises while performing challenging cognitive drills.
Learning how to act in these conditions helps prepare them for special operations missions. Being exposed to manageable stressors can likely help learn adaptive coping skills for future events.
One of the primary principles is “Stress Inoculation,” which conditions them to think quickly under extreme physical and mentally stressful circumstances.
Stress Inoculation was developed by Dr. Donald Meichenbaum and designed to help people handle stressful situations with minimal personal disruption, similar to receiving a vaccination that creates resistance to particular diseases.
In their book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, Dennis Charney, a world-renowned neurobiology expert specializing in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders and the dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Steven Southwick, a psychiatry professor at Yale University, reveal the findings of their resilience research that spanned nearly 20 years.
They interviewed POWs from the Vietnam War, Special Forces instructors, and private citizens who dealt with traumatic events during their studies.
They concluded that people could train their brains to be more resilient by harnessing their stressors and using them to their advantage.
How to Retrain your brain and boost resilience: 10 Steps
- Be optimistic and keep a positive attitude. Keeping a positive attitude is key to deflecting stressors.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“Like pessimists, realistic optimists pay close attention to negative information that is relevant to the problems they face. However, unlike pessimists, they do not remain focused on the negative. They tend to disengage rapidly from problems that appear to be unsolvable. That is, they know when to cut their losses and turn their attention to problems that they believe they can solve.”
- Be cognitively flexible and reframe stressful experiences. Learn to re-evaluate and reframe the event in your head. It’s important to remember that failure is essential for growth. You can use the event as an opportunity for growth by reframing it, assimilating it, accepting it, and recovering from it.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“People who are resilient tend to be flexible: they know when to accept that which cannot be changed and how to positively reframe life’s challenges and failures; they use humor to reframe the tragic and that which is frightening; and they regulate their emotions, sometimes suppressing feelings and at other times expressing them.”
- Develop a moral compass and practice spirituality. Having a robust set of unshakable core values, religious beliefs, and unselfish concern for others’ welfare is essential to resilience.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“In our interviews, we found that many resilient individuals possessed a keen sense of right and wrong that strengthened them during periods of extreme stress and afterward, as they adjusted to life following trauma. Also, altruism – selflessness, concern for the welfare of others, and giving to others with no expectation of benefit to the self – often stood as a pillar of their value system, of their “moral compass.”
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“For example, the relationship between resilience and religion may partly be explained by the social quality of religious attendance. The word “religion” comes from the Latin “Religare,” meaning “to bind.” People who regularly attend religious services may have access to a deeper and broader form of social support than is often available in a secular setting.”
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“New York University’s, Dr. Samoon Amad, “found religious belief among survivors to be the single most powerful force in explaining the tragedy and in explaining survival.”
As an aside, it’s interesting to note the effects of both positive and negative religious coping, as revealed in this quote found on the National Center for Biotechnology Information website. “Purpose in life was associated with lower symptom levels and higher positive emotions. A form of negative religious coping (feeling punished by God for one’s sins or lack of spirituality) was associated with higher symptom levels and negative emotions. Higher
perceived social support was associated with higher positive emotions42.”
Find and imitate resilient role models. Role models influence psychological imprinting. Imitating them is an effective and powerful way to learn resilience.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“all of the resilient individuals we interviewed have role models whose beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors inspire them.”
“Although we generally think of role models as providing positive examples to admire and emulate, in some cases, a particular person may stand out in the opposite way – embodying traits we emphatically do not want to have. We can think of such a person as a negative role model.”
- Face fears and learn to move through them. Fear is normal. Don’t be ashamed of being afraid. Fear can often be a powerful tool that can increase your self-esteem and help you learn the necessary skills to overcome stress.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“To extinguish a fear-conditioned memory, one must be exposed to the fear-inducing stimulus in a safe environment, and this exposure needs to last long enough for the brain to form a new memory which conveys that the fear-conditioned stimulus is no longer dangerous in the present environment. Brain imaging findings suggest that extinction may involve a strengthening of the capacity of the PFC to inhibit amygdala-based fear responses (Phelps et al., 2004). Several approaches to treating anxiety disorders such as PTSD and phobias have been shown to be effective in promoting extinction. In essence, these therapies encourage the patient to confront the fear and anxiety head-on.”
- Use active coping skills rather than being passive. Using active coping skills, you can exercise reappraisal of the stressor and begin creating positive statements about yourself while seeking support from others.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“People who are resilient tend to be flexible – flexible in the way they think about challenges and flexible in the way they react emotionally to stress. They are not wedded to a specific style of coping. Instead, they shift from one coping strategy to another, depending on the circumstances.”
According to their study, humor was found to be a great coping mechanism.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“Substantial evidence exists for the effectiveness of humor as a coping mechanism. Studies involving combat veterans (Hendin & Haas, 1984), cancer patients (Carver, 1993), and surgical patients (Culver et al., 2002) have found that when humor is used to reduce the threatening nature of stressful situations, it is associated with resilience and the capacity to tolerate stress (Martin, 2003).”
- Maintain a supportive social network. Strong relationships provide a “safety net” that can help you be more resilient in stressful times.
One of the men interviewed in their study was Admiral Robert Shumaker. He was a POW in Vietnam for eight years and was isolated from others who were held captive.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest
“Shumaker used his wits and creativity to help develop an ingenious method of communication, known as the Tap Code, which provided a critical lifeline that allowed scores of prisoners to connect with one another.”
“Oxytocin’s actions in reducing amygdala activation and arousal may help to explain why positive support from others can reduce stress (Heinrichs et al., 2009; Lee et al., 2009).”
- Prioritize physical fitness and well-being. Regular exercise improves mood, cognition, emotional regulation, immunity to disease, and overall self-esteem.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“Many of the resilient individuals we interviewed have a regular habit of exercise and believe that staying fit has helped them, both during their traumatic ordeals and during their recovery. Some of them credit physical exercise with saving their lives.”
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“Researchers believe that during vigorous aerobic exercise, the “anxiety-sensitive” person is forced to tolerate many of the same symptoms (that is, rapid heart rate, sweating, and rapid breathing) that frighten him or her during periods of anxiety. Over time, the “anxiety-sensitive” individual who continues to exercise vigorously can learn that these symptoms of arousal are typically not dangerous, and the fear that these symptoms trigger gradually decreases in intensity (Salmon, 2001).”
- Use a multi-discipline approach and be a life-long learner. Changing the way your brain works requires some self-discipline, but you can accomplish it through training. The authors suggest that building emotional intelligence, moral integrity, and physical endurance can all help deflect stressors.
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“In our experience, resilient people tend to be lifelong learners, continually seeking opportunities to become more mentally fit.”
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges
“Indeed, a 2004 study by Cathie Hammond at the University of London concluded that lifelong learning was associated with “…a range of health outcomes; well-being, protection and recovery from mental health difficulties, and the capacity to cope with potentially stress-inducing circumstances; … self-esteem, self-efficacy, a sense of purpose and hope, competences, and social integration. Learning developed these psychosocial qualities through extending boundaries, a process which is quintessential to learning.” (Hammond, 2004)”
- Identify, use, and grow your strengths. Know your mental, spiritual, and social character strengths and use them when faced with difficult situations.
“When should I begin to train? You might ask. The answer: now. As John McCain writes in Why Courage Matters,
“If you do the thing you think you cannot do, you’ll feel your resistance, your hope, your dignity, and your courage grow stronger. You will someday face harder choices that very well might require more courage. And when those moments come, and you choose well, your courage will be recognized by those who matter most to you. When your children see you choose, without hesitation, without remark, to value virtue more than security, to love more than you fear, they will learn what courage looks like and what love serves, and they will dread its absence.”
The years after midlife are challenging, so learning how to retrain your brain and boost resilience pays off now and in the future.
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