Improving everyday resilience is all about taking actions that make people – and ultimately the nation –prepared and stronger. Resilient people help to create resilient communities that are better protected in the face of smaller, everyday incidents, and better able to withstand, manage, and recover from disasters. This in turn, strengthens national health security.

Chances are you already participate in activities that build everyday individual and community health resilience. Strengthening everyday resilience can be as simple as making new relationships in your community, but it also includes activities like CPR or first aid certification.

You can also take steps to become more resilient by promoting your own well-being and mental health. People who are resilient have:

• Social support and close relationships with family and friends
• The ability to manage strong feelings and impulses
• Good problem-solving skills
• The courage to ask for help and seek resources
• A view of themselves as a resilient person
• Healthy ways to cope with stress
• The capacity to help others and find positive meaning in life

To do your part individually to build everyday resilience for your community, try to:

• Live a healthy lifestyle and learn skills to improve stress management. By finding ways to better deal with life’s daily challenges, you can tap into your strengths and the support of family, friends, neighbors, and communities. These effective coping strategies help people develop the ability to withstand and recover from stress and adversity, especially in disaster events.
• Maintain connections to meaningful groups like families, places of worship, and volunteer organizations. People are more empowered to help one another after a major disaster in communities where residents are regularly involved with each other's lives.
• Try to avoid getting sick by taking simple precautions like getting vaccinated and washing your hands. If you do get sick, be careful not to make others in your community sick. Remember that some people – like older adults, immunocompromised individuals, and small children – have a hard time recovering from illnesses. Stay home from work, school or community activities if you are sick.
• Volunteer in your community in any way to help the health of those in need.
• Take trainings in courses like CRP, AED (automated external defibrillator), first aid, and bystander preparedness.
• Talk to your neighbors, family, and friends about emergency preparedness before a disaster strikes. Plan on ways that you can help one another.

Everyday resilience is the cornerstone of a healthy nation. Combined with disaster preparedness efforts, activities that build stronger communities each and every day support the nation’s health security.

Ready to take the next steps in making yourself and your community more resilient? Start by learning more about individual resilience or community resilience.

For more information on national health security, visit www.PHE.gov/NHSS.