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.
Support Groups
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.
Each week will have a different discussion topic. November 3rd will be Rethinking Self and Community Care, November 17th will be Mindful Communication, November 24th will be Attending to Difficult Emotions, December 1st will be Cultivating a Healthy Mindset, December 8th will be Entering the Holiday Season and the Power of Pause, and December 15th will be Grief and the Holiday Season.
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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 November sessions here and December 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.
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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. |
For more upcoming events, check out our events calendar.
Wellness Webinars
- Parenting in the New Age: "Good Enough" - from Toddlers to Teens with Health Net (password: #+g9m6?^). View the slides here.
- Keeping Your Bones and Muscles Healthy with Health Net (password: Yah21%z%)
- Rise to the Challenge: Health and Wellness at Home Quick Tips from Health Net. These quick videos are 3 to 10 minutes in length. (Note: copying and pasting the password will not work, please type them in when prompted.)
- Tip #1: Preventing Zoom Fatigue (password: 2#bnh*0E)
- Tip #2: A Stair Workout (password: 3L*v3t8d)
- Tip #3: Bring the Outdoors Indoors (password: Zf+%56&V)
- Tip #4: It's all about the Mask - Ways to Wear It (password: gt17UY=N)
- Tip #5: Leverage your Influence, Resilience, Compassion, and Empathy (password: tX3P?wK*)
- Tip #6: Focus on Your Breath and Relaxation Exercises (password: T7u9&X6L)
- Tip #7: Mindfulness (password XYpb.7b4)
- Tip #8: Healthy Plate (password: ^.+VCG1G)
- Tip #9: Places to Visit without Leaving Your Home (password: kHV7#YhH)
- Tip #10: Get those Zzzzz's (password: B2b2?N.*)
- Rise to the Challenge: Health and Wellness at Home, Health Net's three part webinar series
- Part 1: A new way of working at home, managing anxiety, social connection, leverage your sphere of influence, physical activity at home, and healthy eating tips
- Part 2: Rest and play; financial well-being; finding balance; managing expectations; connection, empathy, and compassion; resilience; and meditation: finding your breath
- Part 3: Be an influence for good, gratitude, what's going well, boosting your immune system, mindful mini-breaks, healthy shopping tips, and physical and mental wellness
Building Resiliency and Emotional Wellbeing
- Radical Resilience Training Program, a program designed by the UCSC Radical Resilience Initiative
- myStrength is available for free to Kaiser, HealthNet, and Anthem members
- Resilience Skills in a Time of Uncertainty Course from University of Pennsylvania
- Science of Resilience: How to Thrive in Life, a lecture from Dr. Darlene Mininni
- The Science of Well-Being, Yale's online happiness course
- One Perfect Meditation, interactive meditation app for students, sponsored by CAPS.
- Care for Your Coronavirus Anxiety, a toolkit from Shine
- A Dose of Togetherness, weekly talks and a chance to connect in small groups
- Oprah & Deepak 21-Day Meditation Experience
- Guided meditations by Deepak Chopra from Never Alone
- Greater Good's Guide to Well-Being During Coronavirus, The Greater Good Science Center
- Pocket Mindfulness, 6 Mindfulness Exercises
- Resilience in Challenging Times from Sounds True
- How to live well with stress- even in the coronavirus era, UCSF
- How to #BeTheDifference For People With Mental Heatlh Concerns During COVID-19, Mental Health First Aid
- Cultivating Mindfulness at this Critical Moment, Daily Practices with Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Resources for Supporting Your Mental Health During COVID-19
Additional Emotional Wellbeing Resources
- Helping Families Deal with the Stress of Relocation After a Disaster, a resource from the National Alliance on Mental illness, Santa Cruz County
- Webinar Series for Health Care Providers- Emotional Resilience During the COVID-19 Crisis, UCSF
- UC Santa Cruz Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Live webinar regarding enhanced benefit, July 9, 9:00-10:00 AM and July 30, 6:00-7:00 PM, click on this link to register.
- Self-Care Tips and Resources, from Staff Human Resources
- Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS), for students
- Student Health Center wellness resources, for students
- Mindful Nourishment & Movement Sessions, presented by The Center for Mindlfulness, Stanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, and the Compassion Institute
- Wellness Adds Up, a self-directed online video program from UC Irvine
- Getting Started with Meditation, UCLA
- Guided meditation recordings from UCLA
- Weekly 30-minute drop-in meditations from UCLA via Zoom
- Mindfulness Resources from UC San Diego
- Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety, an article from Harvard Health
- Fight Stress with Healthy Habits, an infographic from the American Heart Association
- Weathering the Storm, a series of meditations from Headspace
Physical Wellbeing
- How to Be Physically Active While Social Distancing, a resource from the CDC
- COVID-19 and Telecommuting, EH&S
- FitLife Virtual Group Exercise Classes
- Kaiser members have access to 4,000+ on-demand fitness classes and discounts on livestream fitness classes with ClassPass
- Athletics and Recreation programs
- American Heart Association's Live Workouts
- Kaiser's Heart Healthy Webinar recording is available until June
- Guide to creating a circuit home workout from the American Heart Association
- Pelaton App has a variety of workouts available (not just biking!) in a 90-day free trial
- Nike Training Club has on demand workouts, programs, and nutrition tips which are now free to all Nike Members
- Core Power Yoga has free online yoga videos
- Daily Burn has an extended 60 day trial with a multitude of online workout videos
- Gold's AMP, Gold Gym's app, is free through the end of May
- Fitbit Premium has a 90 day free trial with online workouts and health tips
- UCSF Fitness and Recreation has recorded group fitness classes
- Free Yoga Youtube Channel has hundreds of yoga videos for all levels
- Kaiser's Physical Activity - Every Move Matters printout in English and Spanish
Nutritional Wellbeing
- Kaiser in the Kitchen Webinar Series starts Tuesday, November 10th. Click on the webinar title's link on the day and time of each webinar to join. (Password for each webinar is Thrive123)
- Week 1: Mindful Eating Webinar on Tuesday, November 10th, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM. View the How to Read a Food Label resource page here.
- Week 2: Thriving During the Holidays Webinar on Tuesday, November 17th, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM. View the Thriving During the Holidays resource page here.
- Week 3: Total Health Nutrition Webinar on Tuesday, November 24th, 12:20 PM - 1:30 PM. View the Staples for your pantry and fridge resource here.
- Week 4: Cooking Demo: Healthier Holiday Fare Webinar on Tuesday, December 1st, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM. View the Ready Made Breakfast Prep resource here.
- Week 5: Mindful Living Webinar on Tuesday, December 8th, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM. View the Ready-made Soup resource here.
- Week 6: Resolution to Change Webinar on Tuesday, December 15th, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM. View the Healthy Snack Ideas resource here.
- If you'd like to keep track of your weight and physical activity throughout the end of the year, you can use Kaiser's Maintain Don't Gain Weekly Personal Tracker, here.
- Staple Ingredients for Quick Healthy Meals from the American Heart Association
- Feed Your Potential 365, a collaboration between American Heart Association and Aramark
- Kaiser's Healthy Plate printout in English and Spanish
- Kaiser's High Cholesterol Nutrition printout in English and Spanish
Financial/Occupational Wellbeing
- Learning & Development, Staff Human Resources
- Fidelity Webcast Hub has webinar recordings on various topics
- Virtual Meeting Wellness Guide, created by the UCSC Faculty & Staff Wellness Program
Personal Growth
- UCTV Wellbeing channel has webinar recordings on a wide variety of topics
- Kindle Unlimited has two free months for access to over a million free ebooks
- Class Central has access to free Ivy League online courses
- Linked In has free courses to help you work better from home
- Duolingo has free content to help you learn a new language
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.