Mount Sinai Health System has created a new monthly podcast series, Road To Resilience. The series is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. The podcast features thought-provoking insight from renowned experts as they explain the science behind resilience.
The inaugural episode highlights Dr. Charney, who shares his journey of survival and a highly publicized recovery after being ambushed by a gunman who intentionally targeted him.
He describes how he used strategies based on his decades of resilience research to cope and move forward during this mentally and physically grueling process.
Other experts appearing in the series will further detail simple ideas that everyday people can apply to their own lives to better cope with life’s greatest challenges. They will share their personal stories involving extreme stress, trauma, and resilience.
“You have to put your trauma into context. You can’t undo it; it will always be part of you. But you can take the traumatic experience, learn from it, and incorporate it into who you are and become a stronger person,” explains Dr. Charney. “Once you’re a trauma victim you’re always a trauma victim, but part of the recovery is to make sense of that and grow. It takes time, but you can do it and have a positive outcome.”
Dr. Charney’s and Dr. Southwick’s research in resilience spans 25 years, and their science inspired the Mount Sinai podcast series along with their book, now in its second edition. In the book they present 10 resilience factors to help anyone become more resilient when facing life’s greatest challenges, and explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Some of the factors include facing your fears, and having realistic optimism, a moral compass, a support system, and role models, along with physical and brain fitness. It also provides the very latest data and studies, as well as detailed real-life examples of people who used these factors to overcome extreme trauma and loss. Some of the compelling stories involve military POWs, Navy Seals, and civilians.
Each podcast episode focuses on these specific factors, and presents a simple guide for everyday people to follow and apply to their own lives during times of adversity. Guests include Dr. Charney’s son, Alex Charney, MD, Instructor of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine, on the importance of role models; Deborah Marin, MD, Director for the Center for Spirituality and Health at Mount Sinai, discussing how faith, spirituality and mindfulness can build resilience; and Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, explains how playing to your strengths and practicing altruism can help to overcome adversities.
Road To Resilience episodes are scheduled to air on the last Wednesday of each month. To listen, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
For more information, visit http://icahn.mssm.edu/about/leadership/resilience or http://RoadtoResilience.buzzsprout.com