Clinical child psychologist Kantiana Taslim defined resilience as the determination and grit to always apply one’s knowledge, curiosity and resourcefulness to be able to bounce back from life’s setbacks, failures and disappointments. Resilience also helps individuals discover new pathways, alternatives and solutions when they find themselves in challenging situations.

Thankfully, resilience is a natural human trait; you just need to cultivate and strengthen it using certain techniques.

“Children can actually teach us a great deal about resilience by the time they are still toddlers, when they learn to sit down, when they learn to crawl, when they learn to walk. These skills look very simple but are essentially important – the ability to stand back up again after you’ve fallen down,” Kantiana told The Jakarta Post on Oct. 22.

If you are finding yourself falling under the spell of despair, listen to this: human beings have been using their resilience not just to survive but also to thrive during difficult times. 

“If you think about the amazing Islamic Golden Age (from the eighth to the 14^th century AD), a pivotal time in human history with doctors, scientists, poets, developing medicine, mathematics, astronomy and more – these require adaptability. So I don’t like calling it a 21^st century life skill,” said Sal Gordon, the head of teaching and learning and the principal of the Green School in Bali.

Adaptability in humans, however, can only be achieved through collaboration, communication, critical and creative thinking skills, according to Gordon.

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