At Resilience Land, we are personally familiar with all of the titles cited here and believe that they credibly highlight important aspects of resilience. We invite your thoughts on any of these readings and also your suggestions of other books that we should consider adding to the list. Please use our Contact Us form to let us know.
Note that each book title and cover image links to a more complete online description of the publication (@Amazon).
The Hugging Tree
by Jill Neimark
Illustrated by Nicole Wong
“Sometimes we lose our way. But with some help we start again. That’s how life is.” If you find a tree that needs you and you provide care to it, you just might find that you need it back just as much. It’s a way of sensing that we really are all in this together, and we are here to help each other. A beautifully rendered story to share with someone you love …
The publisher, Magination Press, an operation of the American Psychological Association (APA), observes, “The resilience of the Hugging Tree calls to mind the potential in all of us: to thrive, despite times of struggle and difficulty. To nurture the little spark of hope and resolve. To dream, and to grow, just where we are.”
Resilient Grieving
by Lucy Hone, PhD
A skilled resilience psychologist will advise you that is important to learn from your setbacks – that doing so is a way to strengthen your resilience. But what does such a professional do when she is the one who suffers devastating loss? Well, Lucy Hone, PhD, found herself in exactly that situation in 2013 when her 12-year-old daughter Abi was killed in a car accident, and Dr. Hone decided to share key lessons from what she learned.
First published in Australia as What Abi Taught Us, Resilient Grieving presents an insightfully personal account of how principles of resilience can be practically applied in grief, such as, when dealing with loss, being deliberate in what you choose to focus on, seeking to shed negative emotions, and tuning into the good along the way. Actions such as these are difficult to carry out – as anyone in the throes of despair will attest – but Dr. Hone demonstrates first hand that thoughtful strategies can meaningfully help to re-create a sense of purpose in life.
