How do you handle failure?

A well-known BMJ Mental Health study found that older adults with high mental resilience had a 53% lower risk of dying within 10 years than those with the lowest resilience.

Some researchers even describe resilience as contributing to exceptional longevity.

A 2010 study in China found that adults in their 90s who had higher resilience were significantly more likely to reach 100 than those who didn't.

The biology is still being uncovered, but meta-analyses suggest that resilience appears to affect how people process stress and negative information, which may shape behavior, inflammation, and, indirectly, age-related health.

To be resilient, you have to be adaptable. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam recently found that adaptability shows up in everyday decision-making.

It’s often linked to making bolder choices (even when there's risk involved), and may help explain why resilient-minded people do differently.

The study included 82 adults who completed a resilience questionnaire. Then they made decisions involving financial gain or loss while an MRI measured their brain activity. 

When the researchers compared brain activity with the self-reported resilience scores, certain patterns stood out.

How resilience shows up in the brain is tied to how people behave and the choices they make.

Resilient people practice ‘trait acceptance,’ another way of saying they can accept their current reality. That can make it easier to accept change. A 2020 review found that older adults more open to accepting change tend to live longer, and they also report a stronger will to live, which itself can influence life expectancy.

PFC problems: Interestingly, the Cleveland Clinic notes that damage to the prefrontal cortex can make it harder to adapt to change. Prolonged stress can impair PFC function, which may explain why resilience can support healthier aging.

Researchers expected resilient people's decisions might be driven by positive outcomes. But what had set the resilient brains apart was how they overcame negative ones. 

As Earth writes: "Resilience was not about ignoring bad news. It was about regulating it." Rather than being derailed by a negative outcome, resilient people used emotional regulation to move through it. This was confirmed by increased brain activity in regions connected to cognitive control.

Emotional regulation isn't about suppressing feelings, but not letting them make decisions for you, or debilitate that decision-making.

When facing risk, resilient people were still more willing to take the bolder option, even when loss was possible. 

As the resilient person wasn’t as likely to be driven by positive outcomes, the study also suggests that they didn’t place more value on positive outcomes either. Instead, as Dr. Ulrike Basten, psychologist at RPTU, explains, "[resilient adults] put less value on negative consequences."

In everyday life, this mindset can help people keep moving, make healthier choices, and build self-trust that supports resilience over time.

Resilience is biological and behavioral. It’s also trainable. Based on practices from the Mindful Institute:

Express gratitude: A gratitude journal can strengthen social bonds, reduce stress, and improve sleep. It’s also linked to better cardiovascular and immune function, which can support physical resilience as well.

Stress Inoculation Training (SIT): In simpler terms, short bouts of mentally rehearsing stressful situations—like a tough conversation—can significantly improve resilience in adults with chronic stress, based on randomized trials.

Name your emotions: You can build emotional regulation by naming emotions, which activates the PFC. It can reduce the intensity of those emotions and may buffer against physical stress.

Resilience literally shows up in the brain, in behavior, and in the choices we make. Importantly, it’s a skill that anyone can develop.

The implications for longevity are still being studied, but the science suggests that strengthening resilience can be a high-value trait for healthy aging. Science is just starting to figure out what works best for each person.

So perhaps—in a difficult moment—it could be worth channeling the delusional but resilient Black Knight.

After all, “‘Tis but a scratch.”

Tap into your resilience. Two days in New York with the leading minds in women’s health

Here's what they'll be talking about:

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We asked, you answered: 46% of you CAN do a full weekend without screens IF you had something to distract you. Admittedly, some of you prefer screen-free activities, with one reader calling it the ‘ideal’ weekend to read a nice hardcover book.

I’d encourage all of you to read this article on the joy of reading by Livelong’s Brad Inman. It’ll offer a great perspective.