During these challenging times with navigating physical distance, managing classes exclusively online, and adjusting to new living situations, now might be the time to sharpen your resiliency reserves. 

Resilience is one’s ability to recover from difficulties which is certainly being challenged for most of us. It is thought that resilience can be learned and includes being aware of, and changing how we think about events from initially negative to more positive appraisals. For example, “the pandemic is going to make it impossible for me to find a job, why even try!”  While it is true that it might be more challenging to find a job after graduating, another way to look at this challenge is “While I may not be able to find the exact job I was hoping for, I have skills in being able to work online, and can add a lot to a company. I am going to apply to a wide range of positions!” The first statement might leave you feeling defeated and not wanting to do anything while the second statement validates the difficulties and invites creative action.    

The Counseling Center has a few resources to support your cultivation of resilience:  

• You’ve Got This: Four-Week Resilience Building Webinar - for more information and to register go to myUMBC

• Topic 1: Mindfulness and stress management (5/6, Wed. at 2 p.m.)

• Topic 2: Thought as Thought (5/12, Tues. at 11 a.m.)

• Topic 3: Emotion as Emotion (5/20, Wed. at 2 p.m.)

• Topic 4: Interpersonal Effectiveness (5/27, Wed. at 2 p.m.)

• WellTrack - free app for UMBC students with materials to address depression, anxiety/stress, and public speaking with the very new addition of resilience materials to tackle overwhelming feelings. It includes a new course on resiliency to help you understand your feelings during this time of crisis, and helps teach techniques and perspective to apply when these feelings can seem overwhelming.