Helping students adopt and maintain healthy behaviors is at the core of our school counseling program. To have healthy behaviors students must first start with education and awareness.

"Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive."

- Jean Chatzky

“Coping skills (also called coping strategies or coping mechanisms) are tools and techniques you can use to help you handle difficult emotions, decrease stress, and establish or maintain a sense of internal order.”

Coping skills get us through tough times and can increase our tolerance toward stressful situations. By adding tools to our "coping skill toolbox" we're able to have several strategies on hand to practice in order to help us feel better physically and psychologically!

Positive or Healthy Coping Strategies - are any actions that you take to manage and reduce the stress in your life, in a way that isn't going to be harmful to you in the long run. Using positive strategies helps people tackle their challenges and bounce back from tough times.

• See the Mountaineer Challenge of the Month for examples of healthy coping strategies!

Negative or Unhealthy Coping Strategies - are ways of dealing with your stress or anxiety that may cause more harm than good. Using negative strategies can make your stress worse or create other problems for you in the long run.

• Examples - Avoiding Others, Ignoring Your Stress, Acting Out, Engaging in Dangerous Behavior, Using Substances, or Working Too Much

Create your Coping Skill Meal Plan based on the menu below!

Come up with one want, one need, one thing to share, and one thing you plan to succeed at in 2021!

1. Want— Finish the sentence "This year I want to try________." It doesn’t just have to be trying something new but doing something out of your comfort zone, or committing to doing something you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t made the time to.
2. Need— Finish the sentence "This year I need to ___________." It could be something you need to learn or feel you need to gain in order to grow as a person (more patience, better habits, etc.) rather than a material item or thing.
3. Share– Finish the sentence "This year I want to share ___________." It could be a talent or skill you want to share with the world, your neighborhood, or your school and community… It can be as simple as kindness to something tangible like a new recipe you came up with during quarantine!
4. Succeed – Finish the sentence "This year I want to succeed at___________." Coming up with a specific goal/s you have for yourself that are realistic and attainable over the next year, such as studying harder in school or finding more healthy coping strategies!

Worksheet below created by Mari Hernandez-Tuten

Progressive muscle relaxation is a relaxation technique that helps you release the tension you're holding in your body and feel more relaxed and calm. The 15-minute exercise below is a great introduction to relaxing your body and mind.