Resilience is defined as: “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.”
From the moment we are born, life has a way of teaching us to be resilient. Get up when you fall, manage the pain of bumping your head against a door, get over a heartbreak, deal with stress at work… we are constantly overcoming challenges and getting stronger because of that.
After a major tragedy, resilient people are more likely to come back from it and learn how to live life after tragedy.
In this video, Lucy Hone, a long-time researcher of resilience, tells her personal story of a tragedy she experienced and what she discovered in her own quest of overcoming adversity. In short, she mentions three things resilient people do:
- Accept that s**t happens – life is difficult, unpredictable and unfair. Adversity is a part of life.
- Focus on positive things – what are you grateful for? When we switch our point of view and focus on the good things around us, instead of the bad, we see things in a new light.
- Take control of the situation – ask yourself: is what I’m doing helping me or harming me? If it doesn’t help you, you don’t need it. Be kind to yourself.
Ted Talk
Below is the link to the video – we highly recommend you take 16 minutes to listen to her TedTalk:
