Book 2, Post 2: Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core by Dr. Rick Hanson

Reading Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core by Dr. Rick Hanson has given me so much insight into the psychology of fear and anxiety, which I tend to have a lot of. Hansen explains how the fight or flight response originated from our ancestor's needing to be alert for what danger might be lurking unknowingly, they needed to be prepared to run and fight if a lion was hiding in the bushes to attack them. Nowadays, humans don't need to worry about things like that but the fight or flight response still comes in handy for many situations humans may face, like escaping a building if theres a fire or dodging a bullet. However, many people today are in constant fight or flight mode as anxiety, fear of judgment, and bad things happening are consuming people now more than ever. I am just now finally starting to heal and remedy my mind and body from being in constant fight or flight mode for what seemed like 24/7 for the last 10 years or so. A lot of what Hansen talks about are things that I already knew, but much of what he discusses affirms what I experienced in my life and how to go forth with fixing these issues and changing my life for the better. 

Hansen talks about ways to heal yourself from traumas and train your brain to become more resilient. Many of the tips and advice he gave towards doing so were things I was already implementing but it affirmed that what I was doing would eventually work and to keep up with it and not simply give up because I'm not seeing results immediately. Some suggestions that Hansen gives to becoming more resilient are to get to the root of the problem and identify where your struggles are coming from, for instance, if you struggle with a lot of social anxiety, you would do a deep dive and think back on why you are so anxious in social situations when it all started, and think of what could have possibly caused this to come on. Think back to childhood and evaluate if there was anything that could have caused these anxious tendencies to arise. 

It is also suggested to pick one strength that you would like to have more of that would be greatly beneficial in you in becoming more resilient. In my case, I needed to strengthen not being so fearful of judgment and what people think of me and I needed to become more confident in myself and my actions and place less importance on what others' opinions of me are. You are then supposed to seek opportunities that will help you build this strength every day. For me, I force myself to go out of my comfort zone. Forcing myself to be in uncomfortable situations has begun to rewire my brain into being comfortable in these situations which is leading me to become more resilient.