Home / Wellness Resources

With COVID-19 and sheltering in place, it is important to still take time for self care. Below are virtual resources for faculty, staff and students, from our department, the campus community, sister campuses and companies around the globe that are offering free online services during this challenging time.

 

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Tuesdays, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

 with Silvia Austerlic, MA

El Jardin de la Escucha, a healing justice listening circle, welcomes you into an inclusive, safe and brave space to take a pause, and connect with yourself and others in mindful and caring ways. In these times of extreme uncertainty, adversity, and new possibilities, the rapidly growing pile of crises may narrow our focus to the immediate urgency at hand. Counterintuitively, it is in critical moments like these that our wisest move is to pause, abandon reactivity, cultivate resourcefulness, and develop personal leadership. In this supportive space, you will ground in your internal resources, and learn tools and practices for self-care and resilience, while fostering individual/collective well-being and building community.

Silvia Austerlic

This weekly gathering is facilitated by Silvia Austerlic, an intercultural educator, facilitator and consultant @ Senti-Pensante Connections. She is a working member of the Radical Resilience Initiative and a lecturer for Oakes College where she developed and teaches a class titled “Building an inner sanctuary” about the cultivation of inner and external resources in order to show up for social justice and community care. She also facilitates campus-wide learning events surrounding cultural humility, social justice, and fostering care in the community. Sign up for Silvia's sessions here.

Wednesdays, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

 with Laurel Andres, LMFT

Laurel Andres, LMFT, will facilitate a confidential support group for staff and faculty where she will focus on the cumulative stress and anxiety that could be brought on by the ongoing pandemic, working from home, unrest and injustice, isolation, the devastating fires, and divisive elections.  She will utilize didactic modules on self-awareness and self-care, writing exercises, dyads and group discussion to delve into individual coping and thriving mechanisms. Laurel will discuss the importance of engaging with others in meaningful conversation and inquiry regarding self-care, attending to oneself, our stories and families, as not taking that route can run the risk of those stressors turning into cumulative trauma rather than contributing to growing resilience.

Laurel Andres Laurel Andres is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has her own private psychotherapy practice and is also part of the Critical Incident Team in Santa Cruz County, where she coordinates and facilitates emergency mental health services following acute disasters and periods of long term stress. Sign up for Laurel's sessions here.
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  • Fit at Work with Kaiser. Resources associated with this webinar are the Action Plan and the Fit at Work Exercise Sheet.
  • Adjusting to the New Normal: Resilience & Whole Person Self-Care with Health Net (password: 4KR5NEj#).
  • Health Net's One Minute of Wellness:
    • Focus on Your Breath: Taking time to slow down and reduce stress is more important now than every and breathing deeply is an excellent start whenever you are stressed.
    • Get Better Sleep: 5 tips on ways to get a better night of sleep.
    • Healthy Snack Ideas: Looking for some healthy snack ideas. Give these a try. 5 ideas include trail mix, apples and peanut butter, cheese and crackers, fruit and cheese skewers, grab and go fruit and nuts.
    • Home Workouts: Simple exercises you can do at home to work your core, lower body, and upper body.
    • Lunch Ideas for Working from Home: Here are some healthy work-from-home lunch ideas you can make using ingredients you probably have on-hand.
    • Practice Acts of Kindness: You know this saying "It's better to give than receive". It feels good to help someone who needs it and when we do, it's also a reminder of how comparatively fortunate we are - it's a nice reminder of how thankful we should be for what we already have. Giving makes us happier.
    • Practice Self-Care: The COVID-19 Pandemic can feel overwhelming due to new information, long work hours, and caring for your family and yourself. Taking care of yourself is important so you are equipped to help your family through this time. Tips for Taking care of your Physical health are included.
    • Prevent Computer Eye-Strain: As many of us continue to work from home, excessive time at a computer screen can lead to a form of eye strain called Computer Vision Syndrome. These 6 tips can help.
    • Positivity is Powerful: Developing a truly positive mindset and gaining these benefits is a function of the thoughts you cultivate. If you change how and what you think, you will change how and what you feel. 
    • Self-Massage with a Tennis Ball: Tennis balls are excellent for breaking up tension in hard to reach areas, and are easy to keep handy in the office or gym bag. Two exercises are described. 
    • Stretch Right at Your Desk: Infographic showing desk stretches. Sitting at a desk for long periods can lead to muscle stiffness. Use these stretches in your daily routine. They help relieve stress and tension in the major muscle groups.
    • Take Care of Your Mental Health: 9 tips on how to best care for your mental health.
    • Tips on Managing Weight: 4 ways to manage weight: set goals, portion sizes, make smarter choices, less sitting and more moving.

 

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For questions regarding wellness programming, please contact Jessica Bulleri, Wellness Coordinator at jbulleri@ucsc.edu, or questions regarding mental health wellness resources please contact Cindy Delgado, at cadelgad@ucsc.edu in the Office of Risk Services.