What is resilience, why is it so important, and how do you know if you’re resilient enough?

Resilience refers to both the process and the outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, according to the definition from the American Psychological Association (APA).

It’s having the mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and ability to adjust to both internal and external demands, per the APA.

“It’s your ability to withstand adversity and bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns,” says Amit Sood, MD, the executive director of the Global Center for Resiliency and Well-Being and the creator of the Resilient Option program. (Dr. Sood is also a member of the Everyday Health Wellness Advisory Board.)

RELATED: Resilience Resource Center

It’s important to note that being resilient requires a skill set that you can work on and grow over time. Building resilience takes time, strength, and help from people around you; you’ll likely experience setbacks along the way. It depends on personal behaviors and skills (like self-esteem and communication skills), as well as external things (like social support and resources available to you).

Being resilient does not mean that you don’t experience stress, emotional upheaval, and suffering. Demonstrating resilience includes working through emotional pain and suffering.

Common Questions & Answers

What does it mean to be resilient?

Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Being resilient does not mean you never experience stress, emotional upheaval, and suffering. Resilience involves the ability to work through emotional pain and suffering.

Why is resilience important?

Resilience is important because you need it to process and overcome hardship. 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.

How do I know if I’m resilient?

A survey conducted by Everyday Health, in partnership with The Ohio State University, found that just 55 percent of Americans believe they are at least very resilient. Take the Everyday Health Assessment to find out your resilience score and learn skills to become more resilient.

What are examples of resilience?

There is emotional resilience, in which you tap into optimism in a crisis. Physical resilience is the body’s ability to adapt to challenges and recover. Community resilience is the ability of groups of people to respond to and recover from adverse situations, such as natural disasters.

What are the 7 Cs of resilience?

The 7 Cs resilience model was developed by Ken Ginsburg, MD, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, to help children and adolescents build resilience. The 7 Cs are: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control.

What Is Resilience Theory?

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. Researchers have studied resilience theory across different fields, including psychiatry, human development, and change management.

Resilience theory tells us that resilience isn’t a fixed trait (you can grow your capacity to practice resilience). And it’s not constant, in that you might demonstrate a lot of resilience when it comes to one challenge you’re faced with, but struggle more with being resilient when it comes to another stressor you’re up against.

Flexibility, adaptability, and perseverance can help you tap into your 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 — commonly known as having a “growth mindset” — they increase their own resilience, showing a lower stress response to adversity and improved performance.

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. It involves a combination of inner strengths and outer resources, and there isn’t a universal formula for becoming more resilient.

According to the APA, some of the key factors that contribute to personal resilience include:

The ways you view and engage with the world
The availability and quality of social resources
Specific coping strategies

A variety of factors contribute to building resilience, and there isn’t a simple to-do list to work through adversity.

Resilience is also something that you develop over time. In one 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.

According to resilience theory, other factors that help build resilience include:

Social Support Research shows that your supportive social systems, which can include immediate or extended family, community, friends, and organizations, foster your resilience in times of crisis or trauma.
Self-Esteem A positive sense of self and confidence in your strengths can stave off feelings of helplessness in the face of adversity. A study in Frontiers in Psychiatry 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 has found 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 has shown that people 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 this trait has been linked to improved resilience, a study showed.

Resilience isn’t something people tap into only during overwhelming moments of adversity, according to research on resilience theory. It builds as people encounter all kinds of stressors every day.

What Does the Research Say About Why Resilience Is Important?

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 2022 suggested that people with resilience, coping capabilities, and emotional intelligence are more likely to have better overall well-being and life satisfaction than those with lower resilience.

Another study from 2022, which surveyed 1,032 college students, showed that emotional resilience was linked to reduced stress and a more positive life satisfaction overall during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 says. “[It’s] the core strength you use to lift the load of life.”

What Are the 7 Cs of Resilience?

Ken Ginsburg, MD, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a cofounder of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication, developed the 7 Cs model of resilience to help kids and teens build the skills to be happier and more resilient.

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 they 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.

Reaching Teens, a book edited by Dr. Ginsburg and published by 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 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. Contributing to your community reinforces positive reciprocal relationships.
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 7 Cs of resilience illustrate the interplay between personal strengths and outside resources, regardless of age.

Types of Resilience: Psychological, Emotional, Physical, and Community

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?

Researchers define psychological resilience as the ability to cope with or adapt to uncertainty, challenges, and adversity. It is sometimes referred to as “mental fortitude.”

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.

What Is Emotional Resilience?

How people cope emotionally with stress and adversity varies from person to person, according to the Children’s Society. 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.

Emotionally resilient people understand what they’re feeling and why. 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.

What Is Physical Resilience?

Physical resilience refers to the body’s ability to adapt to challenges, maintain stamina and strength, and recover quickly and efficiently. It’s a person’s ability to function and recover when faced with illness, accidents, or other physical demands.

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.

What Is Community 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.

Real-life examples of community resilience include New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attacks; Newtown, Connecticut, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting; New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina; and the communities of Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, and Uvalde, Texas, in the wake of mass shootings.

For many Americans, the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic tested their resilience like never before.

Research and Statistics on Resilience

Research suggests that certain protective resources, rather than the absence of risk factors, play a significant role in your capacity to confront and work through stressors.

Things like social support, adaptive coping skills, and the ability to tap into your inner strengths can help develop and strengthen resiliency. When it comes to the idea of “natural resilience,” or a person’s innate ability to recover from adversity, the research is mixed.

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.S. 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 found that the statistical model used to interpret the resilience scores greatly influenced the results. The authors concluded that prior research may have overestimated how common resilience is, and suggested that resilience may be more difficult to quantify and study than previously thought.

How Do I Train Myself to Be More Resilient?

The good news is that resilience can be learned. And it’s not about learning how to “grin and bear it” or to simply “get over it.” Nor is it learning to avoid obstacles or resist change.

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.

As a process, it doesn’t happen overnight, and even if you are already resilient, it’s something you have to work at to maintain. The following are steps that can help you build resilience over time.

Develop 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.
Build 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 exercises, and mindfulness training, can help you regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
Learn 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.
Increase 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.
Strengthen connections. Support systems can play a vital role in resilience. Bolster your existing social connections and find opportunities to build new ones.
Know your strengths. People feel more capable and confident when they can identify and draw on their talents and strengths.

Resilience is not a permanent state. You 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.

Resilience and Health Conditions

Studies have shown that characteristics of resilience, particularly social connections and a strong sense of self-worth, help people confront chronic illness.

A review of research on resilience and chronic disease suggested that a person’s resilience can influence both the progression and outcome of illnesses.

Mental Health and Resilience

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 Burnout

Resilience in Children

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 — 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:

Foster social connections.
Help children by having them help others.
Maintain a daily routine.
Take breaks from sources of stress.
Teach self-care.
Set realistic goals.
Nurture a positive self-image.
Keep things in perspective.
Encourage self-discovery.
Accept change as part of life.

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.

Does Gender Affect Resilience?

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, according to research.

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 in Women

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 stereotypically male characteristics (such as aggressiveness), mentoring, and intrinsic motivational factors to work through obstacles.

Resilience in Men

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 significantly more vulnerable to becoming severely depressed after the loss of a spouse.

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

A study focused on perceived sources of stress and resilience among Black American men and noted that most men found support for resiliency through hobbies like sports; many cited family and religion as well.

Celebrities Who Have Shown Resilience

Randy Travis The country music superstar regained his voice and his life after suffering a massive stroke. Learn more about his struggles and hope for the future.
J.K. Rowling The author was divorced, on government aid, and struggling to feed her family just three years before she sold the first Harry Potter book. The manuscript was rejected dozens of times before publisher Bloomsbury bought it. Now Rowling and her books are a global phenomenon.
Emily Blunt As a child, the film actress struggled with a stutter that silenced her in the classroom and among her peers. But a teacher’s suggestion that she try out for a school play helped Blunt finally overcome her stutter.
Sterling K. Brown The actor, whose uncle died from pancreatic cancer, set out to normalize the experience of cancer survivorship. Learn more about how he is putting a spotlight on life after cancer.
Jennifer Hudson The singer’s mother, brother, and nephew were murdered by her sister’s estranged ex-husband. In the wake of the tragedy, Hudson worked through her pain by creating the Julian D. King Gift Foundation. Named after her late nephew, the charity provides support and positive experiences to help children from all backgrounds grow into productive and happy adults.
Lionel Messi The soccer superstar was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency at age 11. The medical costs were too much for his parents, but the sporting director of FC Barcelona heard about his plight and arranged a tryout. Messi made the team and earned the money to cover his treatments.
Rita Wilson An actress, singer, songwriter, and breast cancer survivor, Rita Wilson and her husband, Tom Hanks, helped alert the world to the new threat of COVID-19 when they shared their diagnosis. The experience inspired Wilson to become a flu shot advocate.

Resources We Trust

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 — Resilience

Compiled by the APA, this resource helps people learn how to cope with difficult life situations, including trauma.

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.

Mental Health Services

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

Call 988 if you are thinking about suicide or are worried about a loved one who might be. The Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24/7 in the United States to assist you by connecting you with a trained crisis worker.

Crisis Text Line

Available 24/7 in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, the Crisis Text Line connects every user with a crisis counselor for confidential help on the spot.

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.

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

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.

Sources

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Ledesma J. Conceptual Frameworks and Research Models on Resilience in Leadership. SAGE Open. August 12, 2014.
Yeager DS et al. Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed. Educational Psychologist. October 19, 2012.
Carbonell DM et al. Adolescent Protective Factors Promoting Resilience in Young Adults at Risk for Depression. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. October 2002.
Sippel LM et al. How Does Social Support Enhance Resilience in the Trauma-Exposed Individual? Ecology & Society. December 2015.
Li J et al. The Mediating Role of Resilience and Self-Esteem Between Life Events and Coping Styles Among Rural Left-Behind Adolescents in China: A Cross-Sectional Study. Frontiers in Psychiatry. November 19, 2020.
McGarry S et al. Paediatric Health-Care Professionals: Relationships Between Psychological Distress, Resilience and Coping Skills. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. September 2013.
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Mestre JM et al. Emotion Regulation Ability and Resilience in a Sample of Adolescents From a Suburban Area. Frontiers in Psychology. November 12, 2017.
Ong AD et al. Advancing the Study of Resilience to Daily Stressors. Perspectives on Psychological Science. November 2022.
Lacomba-Trejo L et al. Are Coping Strategies, Emotional Abilities, and Resilience Predictors of Well-Being? Comparison of Linear and Non-Linear Methodologies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. June 18, 2022.
Hu J et al. Perceived Stress and Life Satisfaction During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Social Adaptation and the Moderating Role of Emotional Resilience. Psychology, Health & Medicine. February 9, 2022.
Roy A et al. Low Resilience in Suicide Attempters. Archives of Suicide Research. June 8, 2007.
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Afek A et al. Psychological Resilience, Mental Health, and Inhibitory Control Among Youth and Young Adults Under Stress. Frontiers in Psychiatry. January 19, 2021.
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Whitson HE et al. Physical Resilience in Older Adults: Systematic Review and Development of an Emerging Construct. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. April 2016.
Friborg O et al. A New Rating Scale for Adult Resilience: What Are the Central Protective Resources Behind Healthy Adjustment? International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. June 2003.
Bonanno GA. Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events? American Psychologist. January 2004.
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Kralik D et al. Resilience in the Chronic Illness Experience. Educational Action Research. February 17, 2007.
Cal SF et al. Resilience in Chronic Diseases: A Systematic Review. Cogent Psychology. April 14, 2015.
Resilience Guide for Parents and Teachers. American Psychological Association. 2012.
Zarulli V et al. Women Live Longer Than Men Even During Severe Famines and Epidemics. PNAS. January 8, 2018.
Hu J et al. Gender Differences in PTSD: Susceptibility and Resilience. Gender Differences in Different Contexts. February 1, 2017.
Martin P et al. The Experience of Women in Male-Dominated Occupations: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Inquiry. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology. June 28, 2013.
Resilience: Build Skills to Endure Hardship. Mayo Clinic. December 23, 2023.
King BM et al. Depressive Symptoms and the Buffering Effect of Resilience on Widowhood by Gender. The Gerontologist. December 2019.
Chung B et al. Perceived Sources of Stress and Resilience in Men in an African American Community. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action. Winter 2014.

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