Initiatives

Resilience

Resilience is our ability to cope, to bounce back, even to thrive and be changed for the better when faced with adversity. While it’s not a word that finds its way into our everyday vocabulary, we practice the art of being resilient daily, often without much consideration. We rely on that ability to navigate our fast-paced lives, many responsibilities and multiple stresses both big and small. Child, adolescent or adult—all benefit from a healthy dose of resilience.

  • Why does it matter?When you look at the characteristics of resilient people, you will find those who:

    • Are competent and enjoy a sense of believing they can succeed and so are more likely to do so.
    • Are confident and enjoy a positive view of the world. They are not fearful and are willing to try new things and take healthy risks, challenge themselves, and think outside the box
    • Create connections and maintain strong, positive relationships
    • Have character and integrity; know the difference between right and wrong, make healthy choices, and follow through on doing the right thing
    • Contribute to the world they live in and care about making it a better place
    • Are able to cope and have tenacity; are unwilling to give up easily
    • Have a sense of control over their own lives and are not passive recipients of life’s happenings

    Resiliency

    Emotional health is a vital component of overall good health, and resilience is a positive and preventive aspect of it that can be taught, which makes it especially valuable. Especially important is the job of teaching our children resilience at a young age to give them the best chance at living an emotionally healthy life.

    Strong and resilient individuals lead to better learning, better relationships, better behaviors, and healthier communities, which is a win-win for everyone. One thing we know is that even if the adult isn’t a parent, having one strong connection with a caring adult can make all the difference in creating enduring resilience and impacting the child’s future for the better to a great degree.

    Even when our resilience has been sorely tested, we still learn to face our adversities head on and teach others to do so as well, especially our children. They may yearn for acceptance by their peers, academic excellence, improved relationships with their families or something as seemingly simple as passing their driver’s test. Their days are filled with teachable moments, when they can practice the art of resilience and enhance the characteristics that are already part of their toolkit of coping skills.

    Learn more about resilience. Download our eBook, view our informational videos or mark your calendar for an upcoming presentation.