1. The Resilient College Student

2. What is Resilience?
Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress— such as family/relationship problems or COLLEGE
It is “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.
Resilience is not a trait that people either have or do not have. It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone.

3. The Problem
Psychology Today identifies resilience in college students as declining to a concerning level.
It’s important to grow resilience within yourself for not only your college career but for the rest of your life!
College students are becoming more emotionally fragile to the point where professors feel they can not give low grades, students are afraid to fail, take risks, less hand holding.
Resilience is a tool that will service you for your entire life. College is the time to grow these skills!
The fact that there are studies noting our resilience is on the decline is NOT good! These are not just college skills but skills that will determine how far we go in life and our level of wellness and gratification with life!

4. Factors of Resilience
Internal: Your personal outlook on life. Skills in communication. The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses.
External: Supportive relationships and outlets.
How do people deal with difficult events that change their lives? The death of a loved one, loss of a job, serious illness, terrorist attacks and other traumatic events.
Yet people generally adapt well over time to life-changing situations and stressful conditions. What enables them to do so? It involves resilience, an ongoing process that requires time and effort and engages people in taking a number of steps.

5. Building Resilience
Make connections, where is your support (internal & external)?
Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems
Accept that change is a part of life
Move toward your goals
Take decisive actions
Make connections: What are your relationships that you can lean on when things get challenging? Identify your strengths when it comes to handling stress and problems. Is it exercise? Journaling/blogging? Church? And what is your external support? Friends or family members that you can count on?
Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems: You can't change the fact that highly stressful events happen, but you can change how you interpret and respond to these events. Try looking beyond the present to how future circumstances may be a little better. Note any subtle ways in which you might already feel somewhat better as you deal with difficult situations.
Accept that change is a part of living. Certain goals may no longer be attainable as a result of adverse situations. Accepting circumstances that cannot be changed can help you focus on circumstances that you can alter.
Move toward your goals. Develop some realistic goals. Do something regularly — even if it seems like a small accomplishment — that enables you to move toward your goals. Instead of focusing on tasks that seem unachievable, ask yourself, "What's one thing I know I can accomplish today that helps me move in the direction I want to go?"
Take decisive actions. Act on adverse situations as much as you can. Take decisive actions, rather than detaching completely from problems and stresses and wishing they would just go away.

6. Building Resilience Look for opportunities for self-discovery
Nurture a positive view of yourself
Keep things in perspective
Maintain a hopeful outlook
Take care of yourself
Look for opportunities for self-discovery. People often learn something about themselves and may find that they have grown in some respect as a result of their struggle with loss. Many people who have experienced tragedies and hardship have reported better relationships, greater sense of strength even while feeling vulnerable, increased sense of self-worth, a more developed spirituality and heightened appreciation for life. This is all about perspective! Challenges foster growth!
Nurture a positive view of yourself. Developing confidence in your ability to solve problems and trusting your instincts helps build resilience.
Keep things in perspective. Even when facing very painful events, try to consider the stressful situation in a broader context and keep a long-term perspective. Avoid blowing the event out of proportion.
Maintain a hopeful outlook. An optimistic outlook enables you to expect that good things will happen in your life. Try visualizing what you want, rather than worrying about what you fear.
Take care of yourself. Pay attention to your own needs and feelings. Engage in activities that you enjoy and find relaxing. Exercise regularly. Taking care of yourself helps to keep your mind and body primed to deal with situations that require resilience. Get enough sleep!

7. Activity https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn. edu Take the quiz!
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Video of resilience. Getting back up when you fall.
Another good motivational video

8. Strength doesn’t come from what you can do
Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.

9. The Importance of Journaling
Physical health benefits
Clarify thoughts and feelings
Know yourself better
Reduce stress
Solve problems more effectively
Resolve disagreement with others
Allows reflection
Source:
University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker contends that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. Other research indicates that journaling decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Pennebaker believes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.
Clarify your thoughts and feelings. Do you ever seem all jumbled up inside, unsure of what you want or feel? Taking a few minutes to jot down your thoughts and emotions (no editing!) will quickly get you in touch with your internal world.
Know yourself better. By writing routinely you will get to know what makes you feel happy and confident. You will also become clear about situations and people who are toxic for you — important information for your emotional well-being.
Reduce stress. Writing about anger, sadness and other painful emotions helps to release the intensity of these feelings. By doing so you will feel calmer and better able to stay in the present.
Solve problems more effectively. Typically we problem solve from a left-brained, analytical perspective. But sometimes the answer can only be found by engaging right-brained creativity and intuition. Writing unlocks these other capabilities, and affords the opportunity for unexpected solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.
Resolve disagreements with others. Writing about misunderstandings rather than stewing over them will help you to understand another’s point of view. And you just may come up with a sensible resolution to the conflict.
Allows for vital reflection One of the biggest benefits of journaling is the ability to look on past problems and reflect on the stress felt during certain situations and how they were resolved. Remembering past feelings of situations that are now resolved can allow a different perspective to current similar problems. For example: reading a past journal entry about finals season and stress with a specific class and remembering that everything turned out okay from that situation and your up coming finals will be the same! Everything will work out. This allows for the breaking of harmful thought and emotional patters!

10. How to Start Journaling
Find a form that is comfortable for you
Commit to writing every day
Care more about substance and less about style
Don’t’ be motivated by length
• Find a form that is comfortable for you. A journal should work for you ― not the other way around. You may feel most comfortable with a notebook, a computer processor, a website or an on-line writing app. Find a form that fits your personality and lifestyle. And embrace it!
• Commit to writing every day. The intention of sitting to write every day will compel your mind to manufacture and recognize progress. It is a bold plan. And you will likely miss days but do not let that stop you. Commit again to write the next day.
• Care more about substance and less about style. Write for yourself, not for others. As you do, write with the truest goal of putting onto paper your thoughts and action. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar if those things tend to bog you down. Your goal is not to get an “A.” Your goal is to articulate progress.
• Don’t be motivated by length. There are some days where you’ll be motivated to write much. Others days, only a little.

11. On Campus Resources
The Counseling Center: work one-on-one w/a trained professional to build resilience within yourself Location: McKinney Center (same entrance as the Student Health Center).
Phone
work one-on-one w/a trained professional to build resilience within yourself

12. Grow This Valuable Life Skill Within Yourself
There are countless resources that are SO helpful in building internal strengths around resilience. Sometimes all it takes is a perspective in a “self” help book to open your eyes and see new ways to approach problems and challenges in your life.

13. I’m thankful for my struggle because without it I wouldn't’t have stumbled across my strength.