The Resilience Factor: Seven Essential Skills For Overcoming Life's Inevitable Obstacles - Hardcover

Reivich, Karen; Shatte, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0767911903 ISBN 13: 9780767911900

Publisher: Broadway, 2002

Synopsis

Resilience is a crucial ingredient–perhaps the crucial ingredient–to a happy, healthy life. More than anything else, it's what determines how high we rise above what threatens to wear us down, from battling an illness, to bolstering a marriage, to carrying on after a national crisis. Everyone needs resilience, and now two expert psychologists share seven proven techniques for enhancing our capacity to weather even the cruelest setbacks.

The science in The Resilience Factor takes an extraordinary leap from the research introduced in the bestselling Learned Optimism a decade ago. Just as hundreds of thousands of people were transformed by "flexible optimism," readers of this book will flourish, thanks to their enhanced ability to overcome obstacles of any kind. Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté are seasoned resilience coaches and, through practical methods and vivid anecdotes, they prove that resilience is not just an ability that we're born with and need to survive, but a skill that anyone can learn and improve in order to thrive.

Readers will first complete the Resilience Questionnaire to determine their own innate levels of resilience. Then, the system at the heart of The Resilience Factor will teach them to:

· Cast off harsh self-criticisms and negative self-images
· Navigate through the fallout of any kind of crisis
· Cope with grief and anxiety
· Overcome obstacles in relationships, parenting, or on the job
· Achieve greater physical health
· Bolster optimism, take chances, and embrace life

In light of the unprecedented challenges we've recently faced, there’s never been a greater need to boost our resilience. Without resorting to feel-good pap or quick-fix clichés, The Resilience Factor is self-help at its best, destined to become a classic in the genre.

About this title

Review:

In the capable hands of psychologists Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté, resilience is not a Band-Aid or a buzzword. It is a habit of mind. The Resilience Factor is a practical roadmap for navigating unexpected challenges, surprises, and setbacks at work and home. Their premise--that your thinking style determines your resilience--underlies the books promise: you can boost resilience by changing the way you think about adversity.

The authors synthesize decades of research in cognitive psychology, particularly the work of Aaron Beck and Martin Seligman, to create seven practical strategies for bouncing back. Each strategy demonstrates how "thinking styles" affect emotions and behavior. "The secret is accurate thinking, not positive thinking," they explain. After completing a "Resilience Questionnaire," readers learn to turn off negative thoughts, avoid thinking traps, detect "icebergs"--the basic beliefs that cause us to overreact--and restore perspective. Each strategy is illustrated with vivid examples, including acting-out teenagers, battle-torn marriages, downsized workplaces, and the loss of loved ones. This insightful book offers clear descriptions of resilient thinking and workable tools for changing our minds. --Barbara Mackoff

About the Author:

Karen Reivich, Ph.D. and Andrew Shatté, Ph.D., are vice presidents for research and development with Adaptiv Learning Systems, which offers resilience training for corporate, education, health care, sports, and military markets. With Dr. Martin Seligman, Dr. Reivich coauthored The Optimistic Child, for which she received extensive national media attention. Both authors also teach at the University of Pennsylvania and live in Philadelphia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Broadway
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0767911903
• ISBN 13: 9780767911900
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352