How to Bounce Back: Growing Your Resilience

updated 3/16/21

Strategies

There are many ways to take care of yourself when dealing with stress, trauma, or crisis. Here are some coping strategies we suggest to boost your resilience.

  • Practice stress reduction – Try deep breathing or meditation. Don’t know where to start? Visit CWC’s relaxation exercises
  • Engage in meaningful practices – Prayer, music, art, acts of generosity, or being in nature can make a difference. If you’re looking for options, UF offers leisure courses, has a mindfulness community, and offers camping trips through RecSports. To get yourself started on your own schedule, consider walking along Lake Alice listening to your favorite playlist or visiting Lake Wauburg for a day.
  • Take care of your body– Get enough sleep, eat well, drink plenty of water, and exercise. Avoid alcohol and other drugs. Gatorwell has lots of resources and services to explore.
  • Be kind to yourself –Give yourself permission to feel a wide range of emotions, both good and bad, and let go of high self-expectations.
  • Do what you need –Let go of what you think you should be doing. Allow yourself to do something that brings you joy.
  • Listen to your body– If you need to move around to release energy or you get an urge to cry out or lay down, go ahead and do it.
  • Unplug– Take a break from constantly browsing social media. Allow your mind to take break from the constant flow of information.
  • Get support, talk it out!– Speak your mind with someone you can trust.
  • Use old strategies– Think of strategies that helped before and revisit them. Consider putting together a self-care kit that includes items that can help with coping immediately or reminds you of what strategies worked in the past.

As always, the CWC is here for you. Visit our resources page or try out one of our weekly drop-in workshops.

Learn more about resilience:

Finishing the Semester Strong

Resources

Sometimes you can’t or do not need to do it all on your own. Fortunately, there are many other services and resources, both in the community and online. Here are some to explore.

CWC Resources

Other UF Resources

Community Resources

Online Resources

Added 2/16/18