Have you ever had this dream? You sense the need to run, as quick and as far away as possible. But no matter how much you will your legs to move, they stay stuck.

That dream calls to mind all the ways that we feel stuck in our own lives. Maybe there’s a tragedy you can’t move past, or habits you want to shed but still cling to. Perhaps when a new challenge arises, you realize that your prior experiences haven’t equipped you to encounter new difficulties; they’ve only left you exhausted.

In “Strengthen Your Ability to Face Adversity with the 7 Keys to Resilience,” Laura Howe provides practical steps for growing your capacity to keep moving forward when hardships try to keep you stuck. “Resiliency isn’t the absence of hardship,” Howe writes, “but it’s the skills and disciplines that will allow you to get through challenges.”

Howe recommends taking one of the keys—rest, perhaps, or self-care—and discovering what it unlocks in your life. Then, once that key has become more familiar to you, add in another. It won’t always be easy, and hard times are sure to keep on coming. But you may find yourself with a stronger resiliency muscle, one that frees your feet from their stuck place, empowering you to run.