Resilience is usually thought of as our ability to bounce back and recover from loss and setback. That's the common conception. Our working definition, however, includes three additional facets, all of them increasingly relevant as we age. Resilience:
The most practical and helpful way of thinking about well-being is that it's three attitudes in one. It's:
It's possible to have high levels of resilience and still not have high levels of well-being. That said, you cannot have well-being without resilience.
- Better prepares us for whatever life throws at us next.
- Is a guard rail against overreacting to life's normal ups and downs;
- Is the key to our well-being.
The most practical and helpful way of thinking about well-being is that it's three attitudes in one. It's:
- the combined result of accepting one's past;
- being content or satisfied in the present;
- and being optimistic about the future.
It's possible to have high levels of resilience and still not have high levels of well-being. That said, you cannot have well-being without resilience.