This is a book about coping with stress, and how you can become more resilient. When some people think about stress, they see it as a bad thing, something that should be tolerated, avoided, and prevented, something we should stay away from as much as possible. Others, however, take a more positive view of stress, and see it as posing a challenge to be confronted-something that can be useful for personal growth, maturity, performance, motivation, and other important aspects of life. This latter view of stress is held by resilient people, and we write this book to help you become like them. The key characteristics of a resilient person are flexibility, emotional stability, optimism, empathy, humility, emotional intelligence, sense of purpose, and having a support network. Those are the characteristics we want you to develop.
In Part One, we review the basic psychology of how best to adapt to and cope with the stresses you face as a part of living. We offer guidance on important areas of psychological function such as happiness, empowerment, self-esteem, relationships, and dealing with emotions like anger, depression, and jealousy. In Part Two, we apply that guidance to the areas of marriage, parenting, and aging. In each of these areas we make a common argument: take control of your behavior and thoughts in appropriate ways and stop trying to control people and situations that are beyond your influence. In Part Three, we offer guidance on seeking professional help and deciding whether to include psychiatric medications in your treatment plan.