Resilient people are more likely to Learn more What is resilience? How to build resilience Social engagement Cultivating social connections — and avoiding social isolation — is one of the best ways to build resilience. Eat well, move your body, and get enough sleep Manage stress Practice self-compassion Cultivate opportunities for personal growth; develop interests outside of your field or major Make time for quiet reflection through meditation , prayer, journaling, yoga, spending time in nature, or practicing gratitude Play, and have fun!

Attention and focus Attention allows you to tune out information, sensations, and perceptions that are not relevant at the moment and instead focus your energy on the information that is important.

Turning off your phone or the sound will give you periods of uninterrupted focus while preparing for an exam or presentation. Listen to classical music or other music without lyrics or natural soundscapes like ocean waves, wind, or birdsong to tune out stimuli and help you focus on the task at hand Meaning Finding meaning is the act of making sense of — and exploring the significance of — an experience or situation.

In blue: Skill areas that support resilience see details below graphic In maroon: personal qualities that develop as resilience grows In orange: The pathways through which students can develop and strengthen their resilience Personal qualities developed through Social Engagement Generosity: Being kind in thought and behavior towards others.

Doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Not false or imitative in speech or action. Behaviorally, it is the ability to act in your long-term best interest, consistent with your deepest values. This means learning to accept, even enjoy, hard work and challenge; adapt to changes and unknowns; turn challenges into opportunities; and use humor to keep things in perspective.

Cognitive re framing: Optimism and pessimism both tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. There can be a connection between what you expect and do, and how well your life goes.

Cognitive reframing is a practical technique that helps you notice negative thoughts and replace them with more positive thoughts or perspectives.

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She is passionate about helping children and their families develop resilience, strength, and hope. Emotional resilience—also called emotional agility—is the ability to bounce back emotionally from stressful situations.

It means you can cope or deal with distress and move forward, Dr. Domingues explains. Emotional resilience is not an extraordinary ability but an ordinary one. Everyone can be resilient, and there are skills and exercises you can use to foster that ability.

For children, Dr. In contrast, people who struggle with emotional resilience experience anxiety or stress so intense that it:. The coronavirus pandemic has raised serious health worries worldwide, resulting in canceled plans, challenging changes in school and work situations, and an economic downturn.

Over the summer, the U. also has experienced widespread protests relating to desired systemic changes. As a result of this turmoil, symptoms of anxiety and depression have increased.

Census survey found that nearly one in three Americans felt anxious or nervous in the preceding week. Coping skills that support emotional resilience are particularly crucial as we face continuing unknowns in the fall.

Anxiety and stress can develop in children and adults of all ages. These disorders have manifested in different ways through each phase of the pandemic, Dr.

Domingues says. People living with Gaucher disease face extra challenges. On top of the day-to-day unknowns of a chronic condition, people with Gaucher may worry about access to medical care or medications.

See our coronavirus tips for Gaucher patients. The key to practicing emotional resilience and building well-being is to focus on the things you do have control over. For parents, the lines separating family, work, and self have blurred. Domingues advises. She recommends paced breathing, a deep-breathing technique that involves intentional, slow breathing.

For more self-care tips, see our blog post about coping with stress in the time of COVID Thinking about our thinking is important in times of uncertainty. Learning the skill will help throughout life, Dr.

Even small children can benefit from a practice of gratitude. In a notebook or journal, jot down three things you enjoyed and were grateful for during the day. It can be the smallest thing, like a snack you enjoyed, time with a pet, or something you saw outside.

It can help us manage emotions and what we do in response.

Take the Everyday Health Assessment to find out your resilience score, and learn what skills you should work on to become more resilient.

The 7 Cs are: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control. With all these skills and factors in place we can build inner strength and utilize outside resources — regardless of age, according to Dr.

People face all kinds of adversity in life. There are personal crises, such as illness, loss of a loved one, abuse, bullying, job loss, and financial instability.

There is the shared reality of tragic events in the news, such as terrorist attacks, mass shootings, natural disasters, a global pandemic, and war.

People have to learn to cope with and work through very challenging life experiences. Resilience theory refers to the ideas surrounding how people are affected by and adapt to challenging things like adversity, change, loss, and risk.

Resilience theory has been studied across different fields, including psychiatry, human development, and change management. Flexibility, adaptability, and perseverance can help people tap into their resilience by changing certain thoughts and behaviors. Research shows that when students believe that both intellectual abilities and social attributes can be developed and improved they increase their own resilience, showing a lower stress response to adversity and improved performance.

Developing resilience is both complex and personal. Resilience is also something that you develop over time. In a previous longitudinal study , factors that were protective for adolescents at risk of depression, such as family cohesion, positive self-appraisals, and good interpersonal relations, also led to more resilience in young adulthood.

RELATED: 20 Tips for Building and Cultivating Your Resilience. It builds as people encounter all kinds of stressors every day. Resilience is what gives people the emotional strength to cope with trauma, adversity, and hardship. Resilient people utilize their resources, strengths, and skills to overcome challenges and work through setbacks.

People who lack resilience are more likely to feel overwhelmed or helpless and rely on unhealthy coping strategies such as avoidance, isolation, and self-medication. A study published in May in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health suggested that people with resilience, coping capabilities, and emotional intelligence are more likely to have better overall well-being than those with lower resilience, and better life satisfaction.

One study showed that people who had attempted suicide had significantly lower resilience scale scores than people who had never attempted suicide.

Resilient people do experience stress, setbacks, and difficult emotions, but they tap into their strengths and seek help from support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems.

Resilience empowers them to accept and adapt to a situation and move forward, Sood explains. The American Academy of Pediatrics summarizes the 7 Cs as follows:.

The 7 Cs of resilience illustrate the interplay between personal strengths and outside resources, regardless of age. The word resilience is often used on its own to represent overall adaptability and coping, but it can be broken down into categories or types:.

Researchers define psychological resilience as the ability to mentally cope with or adapt to uncertainty, challenges, and adversity. People who exhibit psychological resilience develop coping strategies and skills that enable them to remain calm and focused during a crisis and move on without long-term negative consequences, including distress and anxiety.

Some people are, by nature, more or less sensitive to change. A situation can trigger a flood of emotions in some people and not in others. They tap into realistic optimism, even when dealing with a crisis, and are proactive in using both internal and external resources to get through.

They are able to manage external stressors and their own emotions in a healthy, positive way. Research shows that physical resilience plays an important role in healthy aging, as people encounter medical issues and physical stressors. Healthy lifestyle choices, connections with friends and neighbors, deep breathing, time well spent to rest and recover, and engagement in enjoyable activities all play a role in physical resilience.

Community resilience refers to the ability of groups of people to respond to and recover from adverse situations, such as natural disasters, acts of violence, economic hardship, and other challenges to the group as a whole.

As the United States grapples with the COVID pandemic, an unprecedented public health emergency, our resilience is being tested as never before. Some studies suggest human resilience in the face of adversity is fairly common. To support this, one study reported that even though 50 to 60 percent of the U.

population is exposed to traumatic events, only 5 to 10 percent of those people develop post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD.

Nevertheless, other research highlights the difficulty in studying resilience. A study that examined spousal loss, divorce, and unemployment and found that the statistical model used to interpret the resilience scores greatly influenced the results.

The good news is that resilience can be learned. Building resilience is a process by which people become better at reframing thought patterns and tapping into a strengths-based approach to working through obstacles. The following are steps that can help you build resilience over time.

Resilience is not a permanent state. A person may feel equipped to manage one stressor and overwhelmed by another. Remember the factors that build resilience and try to apply them when dealing with adversity.

RELATED: Take the Everyday Health Assessment and Get Your Resilience Score. In general, resilient people have many of the following characteristics, according to research :.

Studies have shown that characteristics of resilience, particularly social connections and a strong sense of self-worth, help people confront chronic illness. Resilience is a protective factor against psychological distress in adverse situations involving loss or trauma. It can help in the management of stress levels and depressive symptoms.

Psychological resilience refers to the mental fortitude to handle challenges and adversity. RELATED: How to Cope With Caregiver Depression. Previous research found that behavioral and emotional strategies to cultivate resilience can benefit patients with rheumatoid arthritis RA and other chronic diseases.

One previous study concluded that optimism and perceived social support help improve the quality of life for RA patients. RELATED: People With Rheumatoid Arthritis Develop Resilience by Dealing With Disease Challenges.

Research supports the idea that physical resilience can reduce the adverse effect that stressors have on the immune system. Studies have shown that low resilience is associated with worsening of disease, whereas high resilience is associated with better quality of life.

RELATED: Living With Undiagnosed Disease: A Chance to Develop Resilience? One study found that patients with traumatic brain injuries who tested moderate-high on a resilience scale reported significantly fewer post-injury symptoms and better quality of life than those with low resilience.

According to the Mayo Clinic , high levels of resilience in diabetes patients is associated with lower A1C levels , indicating better glycemic control and disease management.

Research published in April in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry linked resilience, notably personal strengths and social factors, to improved psychological and treatment-related outcomes for cancer patients. People suffering from anxiety and depression frequently report gastrointestinal distress as a primary symptom.

Building resilience can reduce the stress and anxiety associated with some GI symptoms. Research shows a connection between low resilience and worse irritable bowel syndrome IBS symptoms.

Dermatologic disorders are often accompanied by anxiety and stress. Stress, in turn, can trigger flare-ups of skin-related conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema. Research suggest that patients with conditions like psoriasis show signs of less resilience, and early intervention to build resilience can improve symptoms and management of these conditions.

Studies have linked endometriosis and chronic, potentially debilitating pain to depressive mood, anxiety, and reduced resilience. Resilience can be an important factor in reducing the effects on physical, mental, and social well-being. Kids confront any number of challenges as they grow — from starting school and making new friends to adverse, traumatic experiences, such as bullying and abuse.

Cultivating resilience from a young age — the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, and even sources of everyday stress at school or work such as performance or achievement — can help children manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, according to the APA.

The 7 Cs model specifically addresses how to build resilience in kids and teens. It lists competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control as essential skills for young people to handle situations effectively.

Parents can help children develop resilience through positive behaviors and thoughts. The APA lists 10 tips for building resilience in young people:. There is no universal formula for building resilience in young people. If a child seems overwhelmed or troubled at school and at home, parents might consider talking to someone who can help, such as a counselor, psychologist, or other mental health professional.

Studies on resilience and gender suggest that men and women may respond differently to adversity and trauma. But the results have been conflicting. In terms of survival and longevity, women historically thrive in greater numbers than men during times of crisis such as famines and epidemics.

Even when overall life expectancy rose, researchers found women outlived men between six months and four years, research published in the journal PNAS in finds. On the other hand, studies have found that women are approximately twice as likely as men to develop PTSD after a traumatic event.

The reason for the gender difference is unclear, but it may have something to do with coping styles for dealing with trauma. Resilience benefits both men and women when they face challenges and adversity. But women also draw on resilience to overcome obstacles that are more often placed in their way, such as job discrimination, sexual harassment, and domestic violence.

Research found that when confronted with gender bias in the workplace, women relied on adopting male characteristics, mentoring, and intrinsic motivational factors to work through obstacles.

Resilience can protect both men and women from mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. Research has found that men who lack resilience are exponentially more vulnerable to becoming severely depressed after the loss of a spouse.

Research also showed that men with high resilience showed no additional depressive symptoms following a loss, and their overall well-being almost mirrored that of their married counterparts.

A study, published in in the journal Progress in Community Health Partnerships , focused on perceived sources of stress and resilience, specifically among African American men, and found that most men found support for resiliency through family and religion.

Research published in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in December showed that social support is a key moderating factor for resilience among caregivers. That support can be provided by family members and friends, as well as physicians and social workers. One study stressed that healthcare professionals should help identify supportive family members and friends to alleviate caregiver burden.

Raise your sail and begin. Learn More About Inspirational Quotes and 9 Essential Skills That Make You Resilient. Literature and pop culture provide reminders that resilience is common to the human condition.

Here are some of the top reads, films, and shows about ways to build inner strength and stories of people who drew on their own resilience. Learn More About the 11 Best Books Dealing With Resilience.

Learn More About 25 Top Movies and TV Shows Examining Resilience. Every day, people from all walks of life face health and personal challenges.

Their stories of resilience offer hope and inspiration to others facing adversity. For more information on the importance of resilience, what you can do to build up resilience, and how to practice it in your life, visit the following resources.

The Human Rights Resilience Project. This website brings together research, resources, and tools to improve resilience and well-being within the human rights community. American Psychological Association — The Road to Resilience. Compiled by the American Psychological Association, this resource helps people learn how to cope with difficult life situations, including trauma.

It can be difficult to know how and when to get help with feelings of anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. Reaching out for help is a good first step toward building resilience and improving your overall well-being.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Crisis Text Line. Good Therapy. It can be hard to know where to start when looking for a therapist. This find-a-therapist database helps you find support right in your zip code. Young people need help learning to develop resilience in a stressful world.

Edutopia: Resources on Developing Grit, Resilience, and Growth Mindset. This is a curated list of resources to help parents and educators teach and support grit, resilience, and growth mindset. Marginalized youth have a higher risk of bullying, violence, and suicide. There are resources out there to help all youth know that they are not alone.

Born This Way Foundation. Born This Way supports the wellness of young people using evidence-based programs that are kind, compassionate, accepting, and inclusive. The Trevor Project. All kids involved in bullying victims, bullies, witnesses are affected by it.

gov compiles resources to help parents, schools, and communities reduce bullying. Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy.

We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions. Health Conditions A-Z. Best Oils for Skin Complementary Approaches Emotional Wellness Fitness and Exercise Healthy Skin Online Therapy Reiki Healing Resilience Sleep Sexual Health Self Care Yoga Poses See All.

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Allison Young, MD. Resilience Theory Types of Resilience Jump to More Topics. Next up video playing in 10 seconds. Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Being resilient does not mean a person doesn't experience stress, emotional upheaval, and suffering.

Resilience involves the ability to work through emotional pain and suffering. Why is resilience important? Those lacking resilience get easily overwhelmed, and may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Resilient people tap into their strengths and support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems.

What are examples of resilience? There is emotional resilience, in which a person can tap into realistic optimism even when dealing with a crisis. Community resilience refers to the ability of groups of people to respond to and recover from adverse situations, such as natural disasters, acts of violence, or economic hardship.

What are the 7 Cs of resilience? Sood says resilience involves these five principles: Gratitude Compassion Acceptance Meaning Forgiveness The Top Factors That Build Resilience Developing resilience is both complex and personal.

A study published in November in Frontiers in Psychology found that self-esteem and resilience were closely related. Coping skills Coping and problem-solving skills help empower a person who has to work through adversity and overcome hardship. Research finds that using positive coping skills like optimism and sharing can help bolster resilience more than nonproductive coping skills.

Communication skills Being able to communicate clearly and effectively helps people seek support, mobilize resources, and take action. Research shows that those who are able to interact with, show empathy toward, and inspire confidence and trust in others tend to be more resilient.

Emotional regulation The capacity to manage potentially overwhelming emotions or seek assistance to work through them helps people maintain focus when overcoming a challenge, and has been linked to improved resilience, a study published in Frontiers in Psychology in November showed.

What Does the Research Say About Why Resilience Is Important? The 7 Cs model is centered on two key points: Young people live up or down to the expectations that are set for them, and need adults who love them unconditionally and hold them to high expectations.

How we model resilience for young people is far more important than what we say about it. The American Academy of Pediatrics summarizes the 7 Cs as follows: Competence This is the ability to know how to handle situations effectively.

To build competence, individuals develop a set of skills to help them trust their judgments and make responsible choices. Confidence Dr. Ginsburg says that true self-confidence is rooted in competence. Individuals gain confidence by demonstrating competence in real-life situations.

Connection Close ties to family, friends, and community provide a sense of security and belonging. Character Individuals need a fundamental sense of right and wrong to make responsible choices, contribute to society, and experience self-worth.

Contribution Ginsburg says that having a sense of purpose is a powerful motivator. Coping When people learn to cope with stress effectively, they are better prepared to handle adversity and setbacks. Control Developing an understanding of internal control helps individuals act as problem-solvers instead of victims of circumstance.

When individuals learn that they can control the outcomes of their decisions, they are more likely to view themselves as capable and confident. The word resilience is often used on its own to represent overall adaptability and coping, but it can be broken down into categories or types: Psychological resilience Emotional resilience Physical resilience Community resilience What Is Psychological Resilience?

What Is Emotional Resilience? What Is Physical Resilience? What Is Community Resilience? D evelop self-awareness.

Understanding how you typically respond to stress and adversity is the first step toward learning more adaptive strategies.

Self-awareness also includes understanding your strengths and knowing your weaknesses. B uild self-regulation skills. Remaining focused in the face of stress and adversity is important but not easy. Stress-reduction techniques, such as guided imagery , breathing exercise, and mindfulness training, can help individuals regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

L earn coping skills. There are many coping skills that can help in dealing with stressful and challenging situations. They include journaling, reframing thoughts, exercising, spending time outdoors, socializing, improving sleep hygiene, and tapping into creative outlets.

I ncrease optimism. People who are more optimistic tend to feel more in control of their outcomes. To build optimism , focus on what you can do when faced with a challenge, and identify positive, problem-solving steps that you can take.

St rengthen connections. Support systems can play a vital role in resilience. Bolster your existing social connections and find opportunities to build new ones. K now your strengths. People feel more capable and confident when they can identify and draw on their talents and strengths.

RELATED: Take the Everyday Health Assessment and Get Your Resilience Score In general, resilient people have many of the following characteristics, according to research : Social support They can rely on family, friends, and colleagues when needed.

Problem-solving skills They identify ways within their control to work and resolve a problem. Optimism When the going gets tough, they believe in their ability to handle it. Coping skills They have techniques to reduce stress and anxiety.

Self-awareness They know their strengths and weaknesses and how to put internal resources to work. Using the framework below, identify the top three sources of resilience that you would most like to strengthen in your life.

Make a note of those that are most important for you to work on developing. Reflecting on the top three resilience needs you indicated, place the names of people or groups that you could invest in to further cultivate sources of resilience.

Connections that yield resilience can be intentionally cultivated in two ways. First, we can broaden existing relationships by, for example, exploring non-work interests with a teammate or strengthening mutually beneficial relationships with influential work colleagues that help us push back.

Second, we can initiate engagement with new groups or people to cultivate important elements of resilience — for example spiritual groups that remind us of our purpose, or affinity groups that allow us to laugh. Broadening our network helps us develop dimensionality in our lives — a rich variety of relationships and connections that help us grow, that can provide perspective on our struggles, and that can offer us a stronger sense of purpose.

These groups may come from any and all walks of life — athletic pursuits, spiritual associations, nonprofit board work, community organizing groups around social, environmental, or political issues, etc. Engaging in nonwork groups particularly board work, social action, and community organizing groups helps us develop resilience in our work life as well.

Exposure to a diverse group of people allows us to learn different ways of managing, leading, and handling crises, and helps us develop different relational skills such as negotiating with various stakeholders.

It also helps us cultivate empathy and perspective that we carry back into our work, among other benefits. In summary, meaningful investment in non-work relationships broadens the toolkit one can rely upon to manage setbacks when they arise.

One critical insight from our interviews is that relying on your network in times of transition matters a great deal. When people told us stories of significant transitions — moves, job losses, role expansions, or family changes — they tended to separate into one of two groups.

One group tended to lean into the transition and relied on existing relationships to work through the ambiguity and anxiety they were experiencing. This group also used the transition to reach out to one or two new groups such as a working parents group, a newcomers group, or a work-based coaching circle.

In contrast, the second group operated with a mindset that they just needed to absorb the transition and closed in on their circle.

They felt overwhelmed and said they would lean into activities when they had time in the future. Over the ensuing 18 months, this group became a smaller version of themselves and often drifted away from the connections that had been so important to their lives.

Covid has created a significant transition for us all. The importance of building and maintaining your connections has never been clearer. For most of us, the challenges and setbacks we are experiencing in work and life during this pandemic have been relentless.

You can build resilience. Start by understanding the critical importance of growing, maintaining, and tapping a diverse network to help you ride out the storm. Support and funding for the research behind this article was received from the Innovation Resource Center for Human Resources.

Emotional intelligence. The Secret to Building Resilience. by Rob Cross, Karen Dillon, and Danna Greenberg. Leer en español Ler em português. Read more on Emotional intelligence or related topics Stress management and Personal resilience.

Rob Cross is the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and a senior vice president of research at the Institute for Corporate Productivity.

He is the coauthor of The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Add Up—and What to Do About It Harvard Business Review Press, and author of Beyond Collaboration Overload Harvard Business Review Press,