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For Your Social/Emotional/Behavioral Health and Resiliency Toolkit

Check-in with your School Counselor

You can email, call, or use this form to get in contact with your school counselor!

School Counselor Check-In

Resiliency Toolkit

Remember to practice your Resiliency Skills to help overcome stressful events.

Six Resiliency Tools:

Connect: Help create and increase safety in relationships with others. The power of friendship and having safe social connections can help reduce stress, improve decision making, and rebound from mental and physical illness. Practice your empathy and social skills.
Rapid Rest: Quickly calm your nervous system when you are out of balance, or help deescalate others when they are out of balance. Here are some examples:
- Ground:
  1. The body is in direct contact with the ground and through meditation exercises, the individual will experience a sensation orientation of safety and stability.
- Wall Push/ lift:
  1. Push against a wall
  2. Pulling, pushing, lifting, sweeping
  3. Take your time
- Walk/ Orient:
  1. Walk around the room
  2. Notice: The act of moving
  3. Look around the room, wherever you are, pay attention to anything that is pleasing or neutral.
- Tap, sip, sing, or hum:
  1. Notice the physical feeling when you sip on water, sing, hum, whistle.
    - The vibrations
    - How you shape your face
Resource: Sense-in to a positive memory or strength than helps you feel better.
Re-direct: Move to attend to sensations in the body that are neutral or positive. Focus on aspects of yourself that you like.
Highlight: Sense-in to life-affirming helpers, find someone you trust to talk to.
- Friends, caregivers, teachers, coaches, coworkers
Restore: Return to self-compassion when there is shame, know the difference between guilt and shame.
- Guilt is linked to empathy and understanding others' perspectives.
- Shame is a focus on self or being hard on oneself for an action. Shaming yourself can be harmful to your progress to overcome stress events.

Mindfulness and Resiliency

Resiliency information modified for the coming age.

Calming Sounds

Guided Breathing

Belly Breathing:

Lie on your back with your knees slightly bent and your head on a pillow.
Place one hand on your upper chest and one hand below your rib cage, allowing you to feel the movement of your stomach.
Slowly inhale through your nose, feeling your stomach pressing into your hand.
Keep your other hand as still as possible.
Exhale using pursed lips as you tighten your stomach muscles, keeping your upper hand completely still.

Equal Breathing:

Choose a comfortable seated position.
Breathe in and out through your nose.
Count to 3 during each inhale and exhale: Inhale 1,2,3... Exhale 1,2,3... Repeat
Continue practicing this breath for at least 5 minutes.

Bumblebee Breath:

Sitting comfortably with your legs crossed breathe in through your nose for a count of 4.
Breathe in through your nose.
As you breathe out, make a bee buzzing or humming sound

Pursed Lips:

Relax your neck and shoulders.
Keeping your mouth closed, inhale slowly through your nose for 2 counts.
Pucker or purse your lips as though you were going to whistle.
Exhale slowly by blowing air through your pursed lips for a count of 4.

Fun Activities to Help You Unwind

Yoga: Try the Windmill Pose!
- From a standing position, move your feet to create a V-shape that is apart about shoulders width apart. Lift your arms until they are parallel to the ground, then in a circular motion with your arms, touch the floor with one hand, then the other. Make sure to pace yourself, if you cannot reach the floor just yet, touch your knees. Repeat the circle shape six times, three floor touches for each hand.
Journaling:
- This can be a fun outlet to write down what's on your mind. You can write in different colors, add highlights, stickers, and pictures to your journal to make it your own!
Exercise:
- Exercise does not always have to be running on a treadmill or doing push-ups, it can be something more recreational. Toss around a ball, jump rope, play basketball or soccer, try to do a cartwheel (safely). Just try to get outside, get your heart rate up, and enjoy yourself.
Coloring:
- Coloring on a page can be relaxing and satisfying. Here's a link to some free coloring pages online: Coloring Pages
Play a board game:
- A round of monopoly or cards is a fast way to have some fun when things get stressful!
Create a new dessert:
- Here's an easy cookie recipe:
- ³/₄ cup sugar
- ¹/₂ cup butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¹/₂ cups all-purpose flour
- ¹/₂ teaspoon baking soda
- ¹/₂ teaspoon vanilla
- Step 1: Heat oven to 400°F.
- Step 2: Combine sugar, butter, and egg in a bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Add all remaining ingredients; beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.
- Step 3: Add in something fun, chocolate chips, peanut butter, peppermint, or mixed nuts (just make sure no one is allergic!)
- Step 4: Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Here are a couple of fun links to explore the world from the comfort of your home.
- National Museum of Natural History - Virtual Tours: Get up close to some of the world's most precious, historical treasures. Check out the dinosaur exhibit or learn about ancient civilizations!
  - To navigate between adjoining rooms in the tours, click on the blue arrow links on the floor or use the navigation map in the upper right of the presentation screen.
  - Look for the camera icon which gives you a close-up view of a particular object or exhibit panel.
  - Try zooming in as some of the images are stitched together from individual pictures in order to create very high-resolution giga-pixel images.
- 360 Cities: Get a 360-degree view of the world, just click on the icon in the nation you want to visit and explore!
- Access Mars: Get out of this world and travel of surface of Mars to learn about how NASA and the Curiosity rover journeyed through space.
- The World's Largest Cave: The Son Doong cave in Vietnam is the world's largest cave at five miles long. Travel down the cave and make sure to have the volume on to listen to the sounds of the cave.
- San Diego Zoo: Bring the zoo to you with a behind-the-scenes look at all the animals from pandas to penguins.