Resilience is one of those concepts that sounds obscure, until you realize it’s simply your ability to bounce back from difficulties. There are people who seem to have an innate ability to move forward while others get stuck in the mire.

The good news: If resilience doesn’t come naturally, it’s possible to cultivate it. Whether you’re navigating the rising costs of living, addressing racial inequality, or coping with the loss of a loved one, there are books that can offer support.

"Often it's not just the inspiration that's helpful, but discovering a path toward building greater resilience. Books can show us not only that people can overcome adversity, but how to move through it," says Seth J. Gillihan, PhD, a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania and a medical reviewer for Everyday Health.

Our list includes some straightforward self-help options, like Freedom From Anxious Thoughts and Feelings, and memoirs like Between the World and Me.

Here are our top picks for books about resilience.

1. ‘Freedom From Anxious Thoughts and Feelings: A Two-Step Mindfulness Approach for Moving Beyond Fear and Worry,’ by Scott Symington, PhD

Around 40 million people in the United States experience anxiety, making it the most common form of mental illness in America.

Freedom From Anxious Thoughts and Feelings provides a practical approach that the author refers to as the “two-screen method,” which can help stop anxious thoughts in their tracks. The two-screen method is rooted in what author Scott Symington, PhD, calls the three anchors: mindfulness skills, healthy distractions, and loving action.

A mindfulness practice can improve overall health, and in this short guide Dr. Symington provides visual tools for changing your response to difficult thoughts and feelings. In short, it can help you develop a blueprint that you can rely on to deal with anxious emotions. Symington’s approach is easy to understand and apply — essential for anyone who is looking for ways to be more present and stay focused on the things that bring joy.

2. ‘Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy,’ by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us, according to the former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives, says Sandberg, who is also known for her bestselling book Lean In. In Option B, she illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces.

Two weeks after her husband’s sudden death, Sandberg was preparing for a father-child activity at her child’s school. "I want Dave," she cried, referring to her late husband. Her friend replied, "Option A is not available," and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.

Sandberg’s book is part memoir, part how-to, and she devotes several chapters to raising resilient kids and finding strength in family. Helping children identify their unique strengths is essential, she says, and one way to find those strengths is to encourage kids to help others.

3. ‘Between the World and Me,’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The renowned journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote Between the World and Me as a letter to his 15-year-old son. Coates profoundly conveys how racism is inherently part of America’s history and identity. He expresses his own understanding of racism through his experience growing up Black in America. Coates offers both insight and consolation to his son, who may walk a similar path.

Resilience is a persistent theme as, in lyrical prose, Coates covers topics like the social constructs of race, the fear that comes with living in a Black body, police brutality, body autonomy, and the false promises of the American dream.

Between the World and Me won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

4. ‘How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence,’ by Michael Pollan

Imagine if, as you lay dying, you could take a drug that would diminish your fear of death and whatever comes next.

You’d probably take it.

That’s just one concept Michael Pollan explores in How to Change Your Mind, a fascinating look at the history and uses of psychoactive compounds, including LSD and psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms, which some medical experts believe contain a compound that could be used to treat depression).

Pollan was never a drug user, but in middle age became intrigued by the possibility of becoming “more open,” so he started examining how some of these drugs might be used to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Mental health treatment in this country is broken, writes Pollan, and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly less likely to invest in new antidepressants. Pollan interviewed researchers who believe there is a place for a kind of mental health club, where people experience psychedelics in a safe and supportive environment.

One of the researchers Pollan interviewed is a psychiatrist who says psychedelic therapy aims to treat people who are facing a chemical disorder and a loss of meaning in their lives.

Maybe this all sounds kind of far out, but Pollan makes a compelling case for psychedelic therapy.

5. ‘Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness,’ by Rick Hanson, PhD

According to Rick Hanson, PhD, a neuropsychologist and the founder of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California in Berkeley, the keys to resilience are traits like grit, gratitude, and compassion. His latest book, Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness, aims to share practical methods that guide you in building resilience and lasting well-being.

Dr. Hanson believes the brain is a muscle that can be changed for the better through regular stimulation and practice. He breaks down different ways you can exercise your brain, and helps you stockpile mental resources to draw on during difficult times.

As Hanson says: “While resilience helps us recover from loss and trauma, it offers much more than that. True resilience fosters well-being, an underlying sense of happiness, love, and peace.”

6. ‘Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience,’ by Allison Pataki

In just moments, Allison Pataki’s life veered from a predictable path — life with her husband and a baby on the way — to an unexpected journey of love and loss. Five months pregnant on a flight to celebrate their babymoon in Hawaii, Pataki watched as her husband suddenly suffered a near-fatal stroke at 30,000 feet. When he finally woke up in the hospital, it became clear the man she married was lost, along with all his memories of their life together.

On top of caring for her newborn child, Pataki was also tasked with tending to an ailing partner who couldn’t remember her. As a form of personal therapy and dedication to her marriage, she began writing daily letters to her husband in an effort to help him remember their history and love for each other.

Beauty in the Broken Places is an emotional journey told through love letters, with painfully honest reflections and meaningful insights into the true power of the human spirit.

Memoirs themselves are a resilience-building tool. "Hearing another person's story of struggles and overcoming can be so helpful, because it's often easier to relate to someone than just offering advice about what you should do," Dr. Gillihan explains. "Even if their journey is very different from ours, we can find something relatable and universal in the specifics of their situation and how they got through it."

7. ‘The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life,’ by Katy Butler

The Art of Dying Well is a sharp look at today’s medical establishment and how to navigate it in our later stages of life. Katy Butler, an award-winning journalist and authority on end-of-life issues, has built a comprehensive handbook on preparations that allow anyone to make the most of their remaining time.

The book takes readers through the seven phases of late life, starting with active living and concluding with active dying, and provides information on how to take control of your time, your options, and your life.

The first section of the book focuses on health, the stage Butler refers to as “the resilience phase.” She provides a checklist that has everything from finding a medical advocate to advice on enrolling in an HMO (health maintenance organization). In the final chapters, she takes on more sensitive topics, such as how to handle the emotional task of passing, how to leave a good emotional legacy, and how to ensure a peaceful passing.

8. ‘Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence,’ by Rick Hanson, PhD

Humans have evolved to learn quickly from bad experiences and slowly from good ones, says the author and psychologist Rick Hanson, PhD. He says a brain wired to take in the bad and ignore the good makes us worried, irritated, and stressed, instead of confident, secure, and happy.

The challenge we all face is noticing the opportunities we are given each day, and using them to build inner strength. Doing this overrides our default to think pessimistically, and allows us to build new neural structures that convey happiness, love, confidence, and peace.

In Hardwiring Happiness, Dr. Hanson lists four steps that can foster contentment and deliver a powerful sense of resilience as your new normal. Practicing even just a few minutes each day can transform your brain into a center of calm and happiness, he says.

Hanson’s personal experience with melanoma (which his brother-in-law was also diagnosed with and died from), offered an opportunity to change his thought patterns in the face of adversity. Instead of thinking, “Sunscreen is such a hassle. Will it even help?” he chose to feel “glad” — his diagnosis had made him more compassionate toward people with illnesses, and gave him a new appreciation for life.

Hanson’s bottom line? Finding positive meaning in negative events (otherwise known as "reframing") is essential for coping and moving forward.

9. ‘Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead,’ by Brené Brown, PhD

Five years after her talk about vulnerability took the TED stage by storm (41 million views and counting), Brené Brown’s popularity continues to grow. It is thanks in part to her new Netflix show, The Call to Courage, but also because she’s just so sensible, especially when it comes to talking about issues like courage, shame, and worthiness.

In Rising Strong, Dr. Brown takes the position that the only path to more love, belonging, creativity, and joy is vulnerability.

Living a “brave” life, however, is not easy, and stumbling and falling is inevitable, she says. It’s rising and becoming resilient that allows us to move forward.

During her more than 20 years as a university researcher, Brown has listened to CEOs, veterans and active-duty military, teachers, and parents talk about falling down and getting back up. She realized they all had one thing in common: They weren’t afraid to lean into their discomfort, convincing Brown that a critical component of resilience is spirituality.

**10. ‘Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope,’ by Mark Manson**

This book examines the concept of resilience by looking at the roots of our collective unhappiness. “You build resilience through experiencing difficulty and challenges,” Mark Manson says.

Materially speaking, humans are better off than ever: We’re more educated and literate, and extreme poverty is at an all-time low. And yet the percentage of Americans who have been diagnosed with depression is at an all-time high, with the greatest increases seen in women and young adults, according to a 2023 Gallup poll.

So what can we do about it?

In Everything Is F*cked, Manson offers pragmatic, no-holds-barred advice about how to just “get over it” — the “it” being whatever is troubling you — by connecting with the world in ways you might not have considered.

Manson writes about the problem of loneliness in America, and how the “social connective tissue in the country is being destroyed by the overabundance of diversions.” He says the only way to be free is through self-limitation, or in other words, figuring out what (or who) you can cut out of your life so you can focus your attention on the things that really matter to you.

11. ‘Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,’ by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken is the outlier on this list. It’s not a self-help or how-to book, but rather the story of a man whose very life was a testimony to resilience.

Unbroken is the true story of Louis Zamperini, a young U.S. Army bombardier who in 1943 crashed into the Pacific Ocean and was then captured and held as a Japanese prisoner of war. He had already developed resilience growing up the child of poor immigrants in Los Angeles, where he was often in trouble for stealing, smoking, and drinking. To keep him out of trouble, his older brother got Zamperini involved with their high school track team. Zamperini went on to run in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, before enlisting in the Army.

Zamperini was held for more than two years, during which he was starved and endured near-daily beatings at the hands of his guards. When he was finally released, in 1945, Zamperini returned home, but suffered from PTSD and developed a drinking problem. He finally began to heal in 1949 after he heard a sermon by the evangelical preacher Billy Graham. He became a Christian, and even returned to Japan and met some of his former captors.

Most of us will never share Zamperini's specific experiences (fortunately), but reading his story can help us develop self-compassion — a key to building resilience. "We realize as we read that our struggles aren't unique. Difficulties are part of life, as is overcoming them," Gillihan says. "And just as we can't avoid suffering, we can also count on finding the strength we'll need to face it."

Unbroken is one man’s story, but it is filled with lessons on how to live a fulfilling life, even following unspeakable horrors.

12. ‘Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela,’ by Nelson Mandela

It is impossible not to be moved and inspired by Nelson Mandela’s autobiography — Long Walk to Freedom personifies the concept of resilience. He spent more than 25 years in prison for alleged treason and sabotage, and when finally released, he chose to move forward with grace and forgiveness rather than bitterness. He is one of the most courageous political leaders in the modern era, and his fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country.

Mandela’s story is one of desperate struggle and setback, followed by hope and triumph.

Additional reporting by Lauren Bedosky.

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Allison Young, MD

Medical Reviewer

Allison Young, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist providing services via telehealth throughout New York and Florida.

In addition to her private practice, Dr. Young serves as an affiliate professor of psychiatry at Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. She previously taught and mentored medical trainees at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She speaks at national conferences and has published scientific articles on a variety of mental health topics, most notably on the use of evidence-based lifestyle interventions in mental health care.

Young graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a bachelor of science degree in neurobiology and theology. She obtained her doctor of medicine degree with honors in neuroscience and physiology from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She continued her training at NYU during her psychiatry residency, when she was among a small group selected to be part of the residency researcher program and studied novel ways to assess and treat mental distress, with a focus on anxiety, trauma, and grief.

During her psychiatry training, Young sought additional training in women’s mental health and cognitive behavioral therapy. She has also studied and completed further training in evidence-based lifestyle interventions in mental health care, including stress management, exercise, and nutrition. She is an active member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, through which she helps create resources as well as educate physicians and patients on the intersection of lifestyle medicine and mental health.

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Dana Sullivan Kilroy

Author

Dana Sullivan Kilroy has been working as a writer and editor for more than 20 years. Her work has appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times and Outside magazine to BabyCenter.com and WebMD. She is coauthor of The Essential C-Section Guide (Penguin Random House) and Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding (Harvard Common Press). She has a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the University of California in Los Angeles and a Master of Arts in journalism from the University of Nevada's Reynolds School of Journalism. She lives in Reno, Nevada, and when she's not working she can be found in a yoga studio, playing golf, or hiking and skiing in the Sierra Nevada mountains near her home.