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A three-minute video can’t cover everything (we tried). So, here’s the story of a town where adversity strikes again and again and again. Amid the chaos, AdverCitizens have found ways to make it work. But how?
The answer is resilience.
Resilience is the ability to adapt and stay
healthy, even when life throws curveballs.
Or flaming space rocks.
In the video, did you notice the Resilience Scale? It's basically a teeter totter, but scientists insist on calling it "a beam on a fulcrum." It helps us visualize resilience and the three things that influence it.
Click below to learn how the contraption works.
Green boxes are the good stuff. Stuff like safe, stable, supportive people and places. The friend who shows up, the adult who listens, and the community that notices.
Green boxes help to tip the Scale to the right, toward a positive outcome.
Red boxes are life’s rough stuff, the hard experiences nobody orders but everybody gets delivered. One or two, we can usually handle. When they pile up with no one around to help us manage, they create Toxic Stress—a force that disrupts healthy development over time.
Stack enough red boxes, and the Scale can tip to the left, toward a negative outcome.
The purple triangle with the DNA strand? That's the fulcrum. Its starting position is determined by genes, but the fulcrum doesn't stay put. Experiences can influence how our genes are expressed (known as epigenetics)—and building your skills and abilities (that fancy tool belt) can move the fulcrum to the left, helping to tip the Scale to a positive outcome.
Did you notice that the AdverCitizens all wear tool belts? So do you! Yours is just invisible. It holds the skills and abilities that get you through ordinary days and monster-invasion days.
So how do you get a fully loaded tool belt? People and places provide positive supports that help you build and use your skills and abilities.
It’s easiest to pick up skills and abilities in the early years and again during the teen years.
But here’s the important bit: you can add tools at any age. A few examples…
Focusing on a task even when there are distractions.
Meaningful back-and- forth interactions like chatting, playing and listening to the people around you.
Reading, writing, and making sense of ideas so we can keep learning and skill building throughout life.
Turning all the things you have to do into steps, timelines, and actions (instead of a low hum of dread).
Spotting the problem, weighing your options, and picking a move (ideally not panic).
Being able to pause or stop before acting, like resisting that extra cookie.
Setting your sights past next Tuesday: considering future needs and aspirations. Setting goals and organizing the steps and resources needed to achieve them.
You, me, that guy running from the killer bees, we each have one. No two are alike, and they change over time. Did you catch the changes happening to the AdverCitizens?
Watch again—it’s all there.
Her ice cream hit the pavement: a genuine toddler catastrophe. Her dad didn’t rush to replace it. Instead, he helped her through the “melt”-down. With his support, this heartbreak became manageable, and it turned out the cone was enough.
He has a lot of red boxes and has been deep in a solo gaming marathon when his friends convinced him to take a break and kick a soccer ball around. Running, laughing, and setting up the perfect goal? Green box unlocked! Skill levelled up!
Match, message, ghost, repeat. Dating was not going to plan. But then some friends showed up, offering a different kind of match: connection, support, and a green box on her Scale.
He had plenty of green boxes in his life, but losing his wife left him adrift. Then friends turned up with a deck of cards. A few good hands, a lot of laughs, one dispute over bidding that we won’t re-litigate here—one more green box on his Scale.
Resilience isn’t a solo sport.
AdverCity has its own Scale: shared challenges, shared supports, and a whole city’s worth of skills. When AdverCitizens show up for each other, the entire community can manage challenges, both small and big. After all, it’s been put to the test. By Godzilla. And honestly? Some weeks do feel like we live in AdverCity, dodging metaphorical volcanoes, killer bees, and the occasional supervillain.
But like the AdverCitizens, we can add green boxes and use our tools to shift our fulcrums.
So, even when adversity strikes—over and over and over again, we can still tip our Scales to positive outcomes!
Learn more about the science of resilience and brain development.
Discover the science of resilience in this engaging and information-packed video.
Get to know the science of brain development through the accessible, evidence-based Brain Story.
Learn more about how brains build skills and abilities over time.
Learn more about the power of a simple interaction.
Learn about the toll adversity takes on our brains, in the absence of support.
Learn more about how we learn to manage the traffic in our minds.
Get to know the Brain Story and learn more about the Resilience Scale with a free, 90-minute training video.
Looking to apply the Resilience Scale in your organization or community? Connect with our team to explore training, implementation, and collaboration opportunities.