Book aims to help you face hardship, build resiliency

Fires and fear. Death and discomfort. If 2020 feels like your dark night of the soul, you’re not alone: U.S. adults are struggling with unprecedented symptoms of stress, worry and depression this year, according to the latest data.

But even when crumbling feels like the only option, a new book suggests that there might be another way: Bloom through the darkness by accepting it. In “Night Bloomers: 12 Principles for Thriving in Adversity,” clinical psychologist Michelle Pearce maps a path through adversity.

Part writing guide, part treatise on pain and resilience, the book explains how to use writing to build resilience and face adversity. Pearce explores grief, support, hope, fear and selflove, leading readers on an journey of acceptance and self-discovery rooted in real psychological principles.

Among them is cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of evidence-based psychotherapy that focuses on helping people identify and change their thoughts. Considered especially effective for anxiety and stress, the treatment can also be selfdirected.

Although the book isn’t designed to replace therapy, it can supplement it and introduce others to its tactics. It also delves deep into the real-world meaning of resiliency, a term that’s all the rage in modern psychology.

Pearce defines it as “coming back,” and actually teaches readers how to use writing and self-reflection to do so.

Encouragement, realworld anecdotes and examples, and research-based strategies are braided together throughout the book, serving as a guide for those who want to turn their darkest moments into fodder for change.

“When we choose to bloom in the dark, we are allowing the pressure exerted upon our lives to infuse us with the energy we need to propel forward in our lives,” she writes. “We don’t become more despite the pressure; we become more as a result of the pressure.”

“Night Bloomers” isn’t about turning away from hard feelings or negating them. Instead, it turns them into rich fertilizer for new growth. Through loss and fear, collapse and rebirth, Pearce suggests, we can come to dawn with more than we had when evening fell.