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Resilience is a topic that is currently receiving a lot In the last edition of American Jails (September/
of attention. And might I add, finally! The idea of just October 2021), I wrote how resilience is the ability to
“sucking it up and moving on” through trauma and prepare for, cope with, and grow through adversity. If
adversity needs to end. It’s ok not to be ok, and it’s ok we develop these three traits, we can:
to ask for help. • be better prepared for the storms we encounter,
Most people think of resilience as an ability to get • better handle adversity while we are experiencing it,
back up after getting knocked down. But there is so and
much more to this ability. If we broaden our definition
of resilience, we learn we can actually strengthen our • grow through adversity by learning from what life
own resilience and weather storms in our lives without hands us.
always getting knocked down. In life, every one of us will experience trauma and
adversity. When trauma occurs directly to us, this is
called primary trauma. However, you have chosen a

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