Staying Calm
Student Health and Wellness (SHaW) – Mental Health promotes and fosters the emotional and psychological growth and well-being of all students at UConn by providing a wide range of supportive services. The staff is committed to providing quality care in a safe, confidential, and non-judgmental atmosphere. SHaW believes in a strengths-focused, biopsychosocial model of care that honors the fundamental dignity of each person.
Meditation
Meditation Mondays
- Meditation Mondays
- 4p Eastern every Monday for a guided meditation. Our intention is to offer a virtual space, free and open to the public, to engage in practices that support mental wellbeing and help build community and connection. Our live, online Meditation Monday classes are open for UConn students, faculty, and staff.
Meditation Playlist
Guided Meditation to Calm Anxiety
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Black Lives Matter Meditation
- Black Lives Matter Meditation by Dr. Candice Nicole
Coming Back to Breath Meditation
- Coming Back to Breath Meditation by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Lovingkindness Meditation for Oppressive Experiences
- Lovingkindness Meditation for Oppressive Experiences A written meditation adapted from Sharon Salzberg
Meditation: A Simple, Fast Way to Reduce Stress
- Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress. Meditation can wipe away the day's stress, bringing with it inner peace. See how you can easily learn to practice meditation whenever you need it most.
The S.T.O.P. Practice for Stress
- The S.T.O.P. Practice for Stress. A six-minute guided meditation from Elisha Goldstein for reducing reactivity so you can come down from a hectic day.
The SHARP Research Lab
- The SHARP Research Lab. SHARP Lab is partnering with campus groups at UConn (Counselling and Mental Health Services, Freshman Year Experience, and others), as well as local high schools and community groups, to evaluate methods that assist teens and adults in creating a habit of daily meditation.
Cooper Beach Institute
- Cooper Beach Institute offers online classes in meditation and mindfulness. Beginners are welcome. These classes help people to quiet their minds and focus on their well-being.


Managing Stress
AACC Mental Health Mondays
- Messages with information from the African American graduate student therapists at the UConn Psychological Services Clinic in partnership with the African American Cultural Center. Upcoming topics will include: strategies to help de-stress, mindfulness and meditation, signs of depression and anxiety, preparing for school-related stress, when and how to seek professional psychological help, and much more. Please stay tuned for the next announcement and send an email to aacc@uconn.edu to be added to our ListServ if you are not already. *If you have mental health concerns, please contact the Psychological Services Clinic at 860-486-4848. For more information, contact: Pauline Batista at pauline.batista@uconn.edu
Introduction to Mindfulness
- Introduction to Mindfulness
- Student Health and Wellness is offering a workshop to support stress reduction and overall well-being. This 60 minute workshop introduces basic skills of mindfulness practice to include deep breathing, present moment awareness, and self-acceptance.
- https://uconnvtc.webex.com/meet/WorkshopSHaWMH
Managing Mental Health During the Pandemic
Stress Reduction in 5 Minutes or Less
Managing Stress (video)
How to Make Stress your Friend (video)
Spirituality, Meaning, and Health Lab
- Spirituality, Meaning, and Health Lab. Research focuses on multiple aspects of coping with stressful events, including the roles of religious beliefs and religious coping, the phenomenon of stress-related growth, and the making of meaning in the context of traumatic events and life-threatening illnesses, particularly cancer and congestive heart failure.
How to Stay Calm When you Know you’ll be Stressed
- How to stay calm when you know you’ll be stressed. You're not at your best when you're stressed. In fact, your brain has evolved over millennia to release cortisol in stressful situations, inhibiting rational, logical thinking but potentially helping you survive, say, being attacked by a lion. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin thinks there's a way to avoid making critical mistakes in stressful situations, when your thinking becomes clouded -- the pre-mortem. "We all are going to fail now and then," he says. "The idea is to think ahead to what those failures might be.
Stress Management: Breathing Exercises for Relaxation
- Stress Management: Breathing Exercises for Relaxation. Have you ever noticed how you breathe when you feel relaxed? The next time you are relaxed, take a moment to notice how your body feels. Or think about how you breathe when you first wake up in the morning or just before you fall asleep. Breathing exercises can help you relax, because they make your body feel like it does when you are already relaxed.
Headspace
- Headspace is an app and website that offers tools and resources for the mind including movement and healthy living, meditation, sleep and wake up, and stress anxiety.
Calm College
- Calm College. Find Your Calm. Sleep more. Stress less. Live better.
Managing Anxiety
Mood and Anxiety Clinic
- Mood and Anxiety Clinic
- The Mood and Anxiety Clinic at the UConn Health is dedicated to providing comprehensive and compassionate care to individuals struggling with mood and anxiety symptoms
Self-care Tips to Reduce Anxiety
- Self-care Tips to Reduce Anxiety
- As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase, anxiety related to the outbreak is on the rise too. But there are things you can do to help reduce your anxious feelings and in turn, strengthen your immune system.
Learning Anxiety: 10 Ways to Calm Your Mind
- Learning Anxiety: 10 Ways to Calm Your Mind
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- If you frequently find yourself dealing with stress and anxiety that’s interfering with your studying, here are a few tried and proven tips for managing your learning anxiety.
The Secret of Calm
- The secret of calm: how to de-stress if you have one minute, five minutes – or 14 days
- Anxiety is running high, and it can be difficult to find time alone to take a deep breath. Here is a guide to relaxing, however much time you have to spare.

Other Resources
The Holistic Husky Podcast
- The Holistic Husky Podcast
- A community where UConn students can express their experiences with mental health and inspire students to take charge of their wellness.
Refreshr
- Refreshr
- We’ve all had tough days. Let’s get through them together. It feels great to make someone else’s day. Through Refreshr, college students are coming together to send personal videos of encouragement to other students across the country. Send a personal message, receive a personal message.
PostSecret
- PostSecret
- PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren in 2005, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Selected secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.
Active Minds
- Active Minds
- Is dedicated to saving lives and to building stronger families and communities. Through education, research, advocacy, and a focus on young adults ages 14–25, Active Minds is opening up the conversation about mental health and creating lasting change in the way mental health is talked about, cared for, and valued in the United States.
Random Acts of Kindness
- Random Acts of Kindness
- We need to distance ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help each other. During difficult times, we often see the most beautiful acts of kindness. If you’re home and looking for things to do to keep busy, scroll down for a list of resources to help! We will get through this sooner if we take care of ourselves and each other (without risking contagion). Kindness is a powerful tool. Let’s use it.
Realworld
- Realworld
- Comprehensive guide to life after school. We’ll walk you through the major decisions you’ll experience when you get out there (in a way you can actually understand). Built by the team at realworld, this self-paced, online program covers everything you need to know to legitimately understand a credit card offer and stay calm when someone says “401(k)”. From employer paperwork to student loans, we’ve got your back! Before you’re out there on your own, get prepared for the real world with our help!