Book excerpt: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Activate your natural ability to thrive with Resilience For Dummies Stress, anxiety, and exhaustion are all-too-common features of our crazy-paced, curveball-throwing contemporary existence, and it's sometimes hard to see how we can make it from one week to the next intact. But there's a solution to the struggle: resilience! In Resilience For Dummies, Dr. Eva Selhub—former Harvard Medical School instructor and director of the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital for six years—outlines the proven steps we can all take toward optimal resilience to build healthier, more purposeful, and increasingly joyful lives. The six pillars of resilience are: physical vitality, emotional equilibrium, mental toughness and clarity, spiritual purpose, healthy personal relationships, and being an inspiring leader and part of a wider community or team. Dr. Selhub explains why each of these foundations is crucial to flourishing, how fortifying them gives us a base for attacking stress, hardship, and failure head-on, and how this confrontation then develops the strength we need for transformative change within our personal and professional lives. Know how genetics, education, and culture contribute to resilience Avoid learned helplessness and the victim mindset Harmonize stress and make it work for you Clear negative emotions and find your bliss Build up your physical, mental, and spiritual muscles Dr. Selhub's six pillars of resilience show you how to channel your inner strength, face down whatever trouble comes your way, and come out thriving on the other side.