When we fall down, it takes resilience to get back up, because without resilience, what reason do we have to rise again? It was on March 14th, my 19th birthday, that I began making my way through Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté’s The Resilience Factor. As a college freshman living away from home for the first time, I can use some advice on how to respond to adversity. This is why I picked up The Resilience Factor, despite being dubious of the “self-help” genre. A beautiful day at Griffith observatory, overlooking Hollywood, made for the perfect opportunity to learn how to keep going in the face of struggle. What more apt setting, where so many dreams are chased after for lifetimes, could there be to find the elusive key to resilience? After …show more content…
The Resilience Factor is mainly targeted at working-class Western culture, whereas the research of Maggie Zraly and her colleagues focuses on the vastly different people of Rwanda, who experienced a tremendously dissimilar adversity from what most people reading The Resilience Factor have or will face. However, this sharp contrast also allows us to see the universality of resilience in all of humanity, independent of culture, geography, or values. Kwihangana, the Rwandan process of drawing strength from within oneself, bears a striking resemblance to one of the techniques of “putting it in perspective,” in which you tell yourself that you can deal with an adversity, that you do have the strength to overcome (Reivich and Shatté 208). The process of “ABC-ing” adversities also includes the essential aspect of identifying and accepting an adversity for what it is, closely related to gukomeza ubuzima, which allows Rwandans to do the same by accepting struggle and continuing to fight. Finally, the practice kwongera kubaho, which forces Rwandans to acknowledge their existential being, is closely related to part of The Resilience Factor’s conclusion, which highlights the “existential paradox” of mortality. This paradox is what “makes time precious,” as we contemplate the risk of taking action while we only have one life to live (309). This relates to our resilience in that we must balance the fear of failure and pain while taking the right risks to thrive. This balance may not lay directly in The Resilience Factor, the book can help us find
Resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back when faced with a trying situation. In the memoir First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, Loung narrates to us the story of her childhood under the violent reign of the Khmer Rouge. Throughout the memoir, there are many circumstances in which Lound demonstrates incredible resilience through her unwavering determination and persistence. These traits are also evident in my best friend and fellow teammate, Kerry. Every night at swim practice, without fail, Kerry demonstrates remarkable resilience, pushing herself to the limit to complete every set.
In “ Zach’s Lie” by Roland Smith, the characters responsible and worrisome qualities contribute to the speaker’s message that is, resilience is a positive factor for success in life. For example, Zach is having difficulties with making friends in his new school, and he has lost hope, as the text states, “pitiful! my classmates call me a tall snob,” (page 84-85) which shows his worrisome trait. Furthermore, Zach is captured by his greatest fear, and Sam is counting on him to get them out of this situation, according to the text, “giving him time to spring the trap...” (page 205) shows Zach’s responsible trait in which he succeeded.
According to Marian Erickson, “Most of life is choices, and the rest is pure dumb luck.” Real people’s lives depend on this quote everyday, which leads to the outcome of each problem individuals face. In the passages, characterization of the main personas helps one understand the theme. Conflict and symbolism also help lead to the overall idea that life is not always guaranteed to be full of success. The book The Other Wes Moore, the poem “If,” and the informational text “The Art of Resilience” all share a common theme of how choices and luck contribute to the success of life.
Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.
This summer I read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and it was amazing. I really loved every page of Jeannette Wall’s novel, and it just seemed to get better and better as I kept reading. Wall’s novel is recognized as “a remarkable memoir of redemption and resilience.” But what is resilience? To be honest I couldn’t really truly comprehend what resilience was. I had a very vague definition of it, but, not anything I could explain with certainty. In this paper I will find my own definition of resilience, which’ll not only help me finish a summer assignment but also help me to fully understand resilience.
The Rwandan Genocide also is still an existing issue which killed one million people, mostly Tutis and some Hutu’s, continues to be one of the most tragic and memorable events in the contemporary society of Africa. Specifically for those who were involved. Lucie Niyigena, a 70 year old woman who managed to survive the genocide, is still forced to face her fear everyday living beside someone who could have potentially killed a member of her family. This is just one of the still existing hardships for those forced to live it. This problem has not been changed since historical times partly because modern society has chosen not to make the change.
The author portrays the message and theme of persistence, resilience, and grit throughout the entire story. We understand
Everyone encounters obstacles in life that they feel like they can't overcome. People that have 'resilience' can take these challenges head on, stay calm in any situation, and use their problem-solving skills to take advantage of the situation and get themselves out of it. In a section of "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, a biography of war hero Louie Zamperini, Zamperini is adrift at sea after his bomber crashed in the ocean. He is left with just the remains of the plane and two others, Phil and Mac. Louie Zamperini's key characteristics of resilience and the differences between all three men allow them to overcome adversity, and Louie and Phil make it out alive.
I believe that this is true of members of my audience as well. I will use quotes directly from the essay as evidence as well as other written sources on resilience. I need to develop resilience skills to complete my goal. It is also of value to other adult
Resilience is a term that is often applied to those who have faced hardship and viewed the experience in a positive light as an opportunity to grow and change for the better (Wagnild & Collins, 2009). The definition however seems to vary from place to place. Ungar et al. (2008) stated “definitions of resilience are ambiguous when viewed across cultures" (p.174) which is why the understanding of resilience may be difficult to capture (as cited in Windle, Bennett & Noyes, 2011). Although the literature agrees on several common themes about resilience there are many varying opinions on how to define the concept or the attributing factors. Earvolino-Ramirez (2007) and
The article “After the genocide” by Gourevitch (1995) is an informative narration about the Rwandan genocide. The Author’s theme is the meaning of surviving when a group of people rise up against fellow men by massively murdering them. The outline of the article is as follows:
Nevertheless, it should not be ignored that repeated exposure to distressing situations may not always result in stronger character. According to researcher Dr. Cohen -Silver, mental resilience is somewhat like exercising the body: “It cannot be develop without exercise and it breaks down when overworked. (You) cannot minimize in any way the pain of such events when you’re going through them. But it does appear that if you’ve had several such experiences but not too many, you can learn something.” As we face the challenges that come our way, we gain the ability to successfully endure whatever else there is in store. On the flipside, if these challenges become increasingly ubiquitous and beyond the capacity of what you can handle, your ability
Everyone wants to live a successful life and actually become something, whether it’s an entrepreneur, a police officer, or even a professor, it all takes a lot of time and it’s not an easy path. On the road to success it is never stress-free, no matter what one plans on becoming, they stubble in life. There is no tranquil route in life, and people go through rough challenges. However, those rough challenges are never to indignant one, but to help them become a stronger person, as well as support others who also fell the same way as yourself. In the video-blog “The Beauty of Broken Things,” published on YouTube on October 10, 2014, video blogger Joshua Feuerstein expresses how he was once broken into a million pieces and isolated his self from everyone due a tragic event that took place in his life. Feuerstein’s situation to the tragic event is heartbreaking, but things
You’re correct, these are difficult times and we’re all challenged to acquire the resiliency we need to navigate the turbulence of life. My dad often tells me “Tony, you are the most important person you talk to everyday.” As a result, I believe our ability to overcome obstacles and bounce back from adversity first starts with the story we tell ourselves. Far too often our self talk is focused on our flaws, failures, and the things we can’t control. If we changed that narrative and said kind, positive, encouraging, or complementary things to ourselves we would be much more likely to achieve a level of self acceptance and resiliency that enables us withstand the rigors of daily life (Harrington, 2012).
Tough hope is to Resiliency as night is to day. Resiliency…Tough hope… I don’t really have much of either, in my perspective, maybe I do and I just don’t see it, and maybe it’s just not there. My great grandpa died, I didn’t really know him. I moved from my birthplace which was Colorado, and went to a new school starting in second grade. I don’t know if I would call that resiliency, I was just like anyone else, starting a new grade, besides, my mom was in the building, not many peoples’ are. When thinking about resiliency I guess I don’t really know how I would define it, or tough hope. I think I have some, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write this paper, so assuming that I do have some sort of resiliency, I am going to start writing