ABC News' chief medical correspondent, Dr. Tara Narula, is on a mission to help people elevate their health and well-being by boosting their resilience.
Narula, a board-certified cardiologist, is the author of a new book, "The Healing Power of Resilience," that offers a blueprint for building resilience.
"What I found so interesting when I started studying resilience is not only is it really innate, but also it can be learned and built and cultivated like a skill," Narula said Monday on "Good Morning America." "And I felt like that’s so important for people to know."
Narula said that in her role as a practicing cardiologist, she notices that the skill of resilience can be missing in patient care.
"We are not healing our patients because we’re not scaffolding them with teaching them how to build resilience when we hand them a diagnosis," she said. "We’re telling them, ‘You have heart disease,’ or, ‘You have breast cancer,’ 'Here’s a prescription, here’s a treatment,' and we’re not helping them heal by teaching them that they can still thrive after that diagnosis."
While the stress that comes with a medical diagnosis or another life event, like divorce or financial struggles, is inevitable, the ability to successfully cope with the stress is a skill that can be learned, according to Narula.
"The common denominator with any challenge is stress. Our bodies are wired to have a stressful response when we face a challenge," Narula said. "We release hormones like adrenaline, cortisol and inflammation. It is nature. It’s meant to protect us. And a small amount of stress is good. The problem is when it becomes chronic, that’s when it becomes damaging."
In her book, Narula lays out eight steps, or tools, to add to your life to help build resilience. The steps include everything from using flexible thinking and building connections to seeking out love, facing your fears and getting fit.
"The book is really about saying, look, even though we release this stress response, we have agency and power to create a resilient response and really turn that on its head," Narula said.
"The Healing Power of Resilience" is available everywhere books are sold on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
