Empathy has no script. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It's simply listening, holding safe space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of “you are not alone.”

I grew up visiting Iowa’s field campus, the Macbride Nature Recreation Area, home to my earliest memories of exploring outdoors. It is the place with the “little house” in the forest, in which my sister and I would peer out the window at the bird feeders, counting the songbirds and making up names for each one we saw.

Early research on resilience emphasized the role of genetics. However, more recent research shows that some people become more resilient over their lifetimes—suggesting there are things we can all do to bounce back more quickly and effectively.

Dr. Scott Peck writes in his book, The Road Less Traveled: “Life can be difficult. Scratch that. Life is difficult.”