We are all constantly faced with challenges in our lives, both big and small. We constantly talk about how to move past challenges, but rarely talk about how to build up the skills that allow us to be resilient in the first place. Why is resilience necessary, and how do we build it up? How can you bounce back from challenges? On this episode, speaker, author and resilience mentor, Sandra Younger joins us to talk about surviving a traumatic fire, how that built up her resilience, and how we can build ours up too.   “We can--on our own, by our own choice-- build our resilience.” -Sandra Younger   3 Things We Learned From This Episode   Be proud of committing time to your kids 07:22 - 07:56 A lot of women who decide to stay at home and raise their children feel like they won’t be able to make up the time that could have been spent focusing on a career. You’re not going to get those years back in your career, but you’re not going to get them back with your kids either.   Resilience practice starts with gratitude 13:37 - 14:45 When you want to practice resilience, the very first step is to have gratitude. It is the antidote to all of our negative emotions, and it’s a big part of the healing process. It also keeps us from being stuck in resentment and a general life of misery.   The ComeBACK Formula 17:13 - 20:41 Be patient with the process and the pain, and believe that you can come back from it. Accept help-- don’t think it’s weak to do so. Ask when you need it. Choose your story. We don’t always get to choose what happens to us, but we can choose our response. Keep moving, forgive, and lose attachment to how things need to be.     Life is not easy, and we have to overcome a lot of difficult things. Resilience is something we were born with, and it gives us the ability to overcome challenges. We can open ourselves up to possibilities and opportunities on the other side of adversity or disaster, but there are steps we have to take. Practice gratitude, be patient, ask for help, choose the story you attach to an occurrence, and then keep moving forward by forgiving. We can practice all of this and build it like a muscle.