It began with a bite; the bite that Alayna Bellquist had been living in fear of since she heard a relative describe the ravages of chronic Lyme. But over the course of the following five years, Alayna’s dance with the disease would teach her more about herself, about healing, and about humans’ symbiotic relationship with the natural world than all her years of scientific training as a marine conversationist.

As the illness took hold—slowly at first, and then with a decisiveness that stripped Alayna of everything she held dear—she was forced to grapple with a series of confronting questions: to what extent had her high-achieving, perfectionist personality contributed to her getting so sick? Why was it so hard to ask for help? And what would she have to change about herself and her worldview in order to get better?

Resilient by Nature charts Alayna’s path to discovering the answers. Along the way, she illuminates a new approach to curing chronic Lyme—one supported by medical science but rooted in the excavation of deeply held traumas and the maladaptive coping mechanisms they give rise to. And woven into her words, a message that we all need to hear: only by repairing our relationship with nature will we ever fully heal.