During the fall semester, the Mental Health Postvention Task Force spoke with members of the UI community about their experiences during the pandemic, and asked what advice they have for other Hawkeyes that may still be struggling. These are their stories.

Practicing positivity can lower stress, improve physical health, yield healthier relationships, and more. I am drawn to books, articles, and podcasts that provide practical strategies for reframing my outlook and perceptions in ways that support my wellness and healthy relationships with others. There is no shortage of strategies. Strategies such as these worked for me at various life stages—until March 2020.

Grace, the experience of gifts freely given, is ever present; it’s the body breathing, and the heart beating, it is seeing, tasting, smelling, touching, and feeling (emotion), thinking, and it is language and speech, listening, laughter, kindness, generosity and gratitude, and it is the awareness that knows in and through all these and more. “Resting” in grace requires patience, the ability to stay and attend long enough to receive and savor what has been freely given.

Our success at work is often measured by metrics of productivity and efficiency, with working faster, longer, and harder sometimes presumed to be their own reward. Work also can be entangled with status judgments, in which our answer to, “What do you do?” brings a loaded assessment of our importance by another’s standards. Our work is not only about what we do or how fast we do it. It is also about who we are and choose to be. It is about the deep meaningfulness of our individual stories, values, and self-understanding.