Resilience

Very interesting, fast reader

The best book I have ever read on this topic. The practical, research-based concepts of how to navigate challenging times in life helped me through a very hard time. I read through many books during that time, but none of them came close to the insightful and life changing information in this book. I have even begun to start handing out copies of it to friends and family going through hard times themselves.

I read this book as part of the research I’m busy with, I quite liked how the book blends research and personal stories making it easy to understand how the both comes together. The personal stories on resilience are a delight to read and aptly takes the reader through the framework of factors of resilience.

This book is promoted as a scientifically based resource on how to master "life's greatest challenges." In fact, it is extremely thin on the scientific evidence but very heavy on a jumble of anecdotes that follow individuals who have survived some great challenge yet generally offer little insight into what they did to survive or why it worked. Two examples from Chapter 5. The story about Dr. Apolinary Ngirwa presents a collage of specific details about his experiences in the hospital during the COVID epidemic. But, in discussing how he responded, it is unclear how why things he did produced resilience. Statements such as "Dr. Ngirwa derived immense meaning from the work and was moved by small moments of grace..." are not only vague but are so common sense that I wonder why the authors of the book think this story offers any special insights into resilience. A second example is the story of the Southwick family who were Quakers persecuted by the Puritan Church. The story gives details of their persecution and finally ends with the parents fleeing and dying. But, aside from the tenacity of the family, it is unclear what one can take away from this story other than (again) the common sense notion of "just hang in there." How can a person best be prepared to handle life's greatest challenges? The best is to make sure that you are firmly grounded in faith. I don't mean something as vague as "spirituality." Two examples. Become a devout Catholic and become deeply familiar with what the Church teaches (the Word on Fire Institute is a phenomenal resource). Or become a devout Buddhist. In either case (or in some other coherent religious tradition), learn what they say about adversity in life and how to respond to it -- and why.

Greatly recommended

There is some good stuff in this book although if you have read a bit about the subject it may not be new to you. That being said some of the stories used to illustrate various ideas were interesting to me. Some people have mentioned the religious aspect of some anecdotes being off-putting but I didn't find it obtrusive or excessive. If I was anticipating a difficult or challenging period in my life then I think this would be the book I would choose to help me.