Real-life resilience - Tham Luang Cave Rescue

This is the story of how 12 boys and their soccer coach survived the unimaginable.

It was 2018, and the Wild Boars soccer team in Northern Thailand decided to go on a small adventure after training, exploring nearby caves. It was just kids being kids, out exploring. Everyone expected to be home in time for dinner.

But out of nowhere, a monsoon hit the area.

The cave flooded, sealing them inside. They had no food or water and limited light…and no clear way out. They were stranded and, what’s worse, no one knew where they were. Somehow, for nine days, they managed to keep it together enough to wait it out. And then, in what became one of the most remarkable rescues in history, they were found and eventually brought out alive.

What happened both inside and outside of that cave is more than a survival story. It’s a roadmap for resilience under extreme pressure, holding important lessons for modern life and leadership.

The rescue.

The team included kids aged between 11 to 16. Luckily, their 25-year old coach was a trained Buddhist monk and this made all of the difference.

Trapped in pitch black, with no idea if help would come, the coach taught the boys to slow their breathing and meditate. They had no choice but to wait it out, praying for someone to miraculously find them. Meditation was their tool to regulate, to stay calm, and conserve energy.

And amazingly, after 9 days in the dark, two advanced British divers found the group alive, approx 4km deep inside the maze of caves. The world exhaled.

However, it was one thing to find them, another thing to get them out.

Thus began an extraordinary global coalition of supporters. An estimated 10,000 human beings stepped up to do whatever they could - this included Thai Navy SEALS, British divers, engineers, doctors, volunteers from all over the world. In a feat of selflessness, nearby rice farmers even allowed their fields to flood to try to divert water away from the cave system.

The final plan to extract them was unbelievably daring: each boy would be put under general anesthesia (medical-grade ketamine) for the full journey, put in a wetsuit with breathing apparatus, and guided by expert divers through flooded, narrow tunnels that even seasoned professionals found difficult. At some spots along the journey, the cave chambers were dry, so divers briefly removed the dive gear, carried the child over land via a stretcher, then re‑equipped them for further submerged sections.

After planning, the actual extraction mission took 3 full days. It probably shouldn’t have worked, but it did! 18 days after they first went into the cave, all 13 had made it out alive. Simply incredible!

Sometimes resilience feels like the impossible.

This wasn’t brute force resilience. It wasn’t “push through no matter what.” It was hopeful, patient and collective.

It’s something we can all soak up and study, to borrow the best lessons in our own lives. We may not be navigating floodwaters and cave systems, but sometimes we feel trapped, drained of energy, and uncertain about the future.

It’s a stressful feeling, riddled with physical and mental strains that sometimes feel so overbearing that we want to scream.

But, whatever we might be facing, we must always believe there IS a way out.

The tools used in the cave rescue are the same ones we can use above ground.

Three ideas for teams and individuals

1. Prioritize calm. When panic rises, our thinking shuts down. The coach’s decision to lean into meditation and mindfulness helped the boys conserve oxygen, regulate fear, and stay functional. And, especially in stressful environments, we need these anchors of calm. Whether we're leading a team, parenting through chaos, or facing a personal storm, our calm is contagious. My best tools to prepare for the storm is to practice meditation and breathwork. Even just 2 minutes helps regulate our nervous system. I can’t think of better proof that meditation can help us regulate than this story.

2. Support networks matter. In a hyper-individual world, community is a superpower. If we’re alone in our own head, often it’s a breeding ground for anxiety, but connection can build courage. The boys didn’t turn on each other. There was no panic or fighting. They leaned on one another, stayed close, shared limited resources, and kept morale intact. It was team resilience, not just individual strength. The way we can practice this is to create mini tribes at work (and outside of work too!). These could include a go-to group chat, lunch circle, or weekly check-in to process stress together. One thing - we should try to build our “rescue team” before we need it. Invest in relationships, mentors, colleagues, and allies.

3. Plan like an optimist, prepare like a realist. This story is deep with hope, but it’s also filled with action. The boys clung to the idea of being found, and it was enough to help them get through. When things feel stuck, hope is actually a discipline. Reframing the struggle gives us energy to persist. But hope only gets us so far - we still need to take action. The divers knew how risky this was. They rehearsed. They calculated. They had backup plans and dry runs. Whether we're launching something big or navigating change, when we combine hope with planning, we give ourselves the best chance of success.

This story is such a powerful demonstration of collective resilience. Young kids hung on with hope and physiological regulation under stress. 10,000 people played a part because they believed in something bigger than themselves. And the plan succeeded because of strong leadership, connection, and communication.

Just because we’re in the dark, doesn’t mean the light isn’t coming.

Until next time, stay resilient friends.

Carre @ Resilient Minds

PS - I use this story in workshops for teams navigating stress and uncertainty. It’s one of many that I draw upon. If your team needs a pressure valve release that is forged in real-life practical tools, let’s set up a chat to talk about workshops.