ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the components of resilience and emotional intelligence and how these skills mature reader's empathetic response. They can develop grit and perseverance, sharpen their empathy and compassion skills, and change their resilience. According to Graham, resilience involves a somatic component, an emotional component, a relational component that involves empathy and compassion, and a reflective component. In addition to nurturing mind-body responses to adversity and developing emotional processes, empathy and compassion have a role within resilience development. Nurturing reader's emotional and interpersonal processes, including empathy and compassion, strengthens the adaptive aspects of the stress response and improves overall resilience. Developing self-compassion enables the readers to focus their empathy skills inward. In addition to self-compassion, nurturing empathy and compassion can result in significantly improved resilience. In Graham's work, she discussed using the attributes of theory of mind as a way to address and improve resilience.
