Saturday, June 22, 2019

“Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness” by Rick Hanson


Another self-help book recommended to me by my counselor. Hanson here takes 12 different aspects of resilience (compassion, mindfulness, learning, grit, gratitude, confidence, calm, motivation, intimacy, courage, aspiration, and generosity) and goes through each one giving explanations of how they relate to resilience as well as exercises to strengthen them. This produces a well-rounded view of resilience itself, and clear ways to try and cultivate it within ourselves.

I did quite like a lot of his advice, but I will say that each chapter could probably be spun off into a book of its own. It felt as though we were just scratching the surface of what could be discussed and explored. My other comment is that a lot of his exercises boil down to his practice called HEAL: Have a good experience, Enrich it, Absorb it, and Link the positive and negative material. In this way we can both cherish happy moments as well as repair old wounds. It is a great practice, and while variations of it can be performed for all 12 of these aspects, it did seem as though we were rehashing the same material at points.

Still, there is a lot of valuable advice in this book about building up your own strength. I found it useful to peruse, so if you are considering starting a self-help journey or whatnot, do consider this!

No comments:

Post a Comment