Free Mindfulness Resources as a Response to Covid-19

The spread of coronavirus since 2020 has led to significant changes for many of us across the world. We have been dealing with challenging circumstances in terms of our work, home life or financial situations, while making sense of moving most of our interactions with others in to the online world. 

It is heartwarming to see that many organisations and teachers are providing free access to mindfulness online. Below is a list of offerings that are, free, mindfulness-related resources from experienced teachers. You can also find information about live practice sessions here.

Dr. Jud Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who specializes in mindfulness, anxiety and habit change has produced a series of short videos (each around 5 minutes long) on his YouTube channel on how to work with fear, anxiety, uncertainty and other relevant topics, and also gives tips on how to develop healthy mindful habits. Click here to watch. Jud also led a talk in collaboration with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre on 1st April about 'Fear + Uncertainty = Anxiety. Working with Uncertainty.'

On Wednesday 25th March 2020, Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction, was live with, 'Mindfulness, healing and wisdom in a time of Covid-19'. A recording of this session is here on Youtube. 

Jon Kabat-Zinn offered many live sessions through March - June 2020, recordings can be found on Youtube here.

The Oxford Mindfulness Centre, a UK-based mindfulness teacher-training organisation, have offered a series of talks through Zoom. A recording of all talks to date can be found here. 

Tara Brach has given a talk, 'Facing Pandemic Fears With an Awake Heart'. Tara Brach is a clinical psychologist, an internationally known teacher of mindfulness meditation, and author.

Jack Kornfield is an American Buddhist teacher. He is a founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California, US. He has recorded a short 15-minute practice of 'A Steady Heart' in response to the coronavirus situation. The practice invites an awareness of and opening to and making space for any challenging body sensations, feelings, and mind activity, in the midst of what is currently happening.

Online Courses

Breathworks is a mindfulness organisation founded in the UK. Vidyamala Burch is well known in the mindfulness community for her work around mindfulness and health. She has written a blog post, and Breathworks have developed an online course 'Mindful self-care for troubling times' specifically around coping with the impact of coronavirus. A new course for health professionals is also available called 'The Quiet Space.'

Palouse Mindfulness is based in the US. The site offers free online resources for an eight week mindfulness-based stress reduction course. The site is an excellent resource if you wish to learn more about mindfulness.

Articles

Tara Brach is a well-respected psychologist, author and mindfulness teacher in the US. Tara been interviewed in Vox in relation to Coronavirus and how we might cope.

The Mindfulness in Schools Project has written a brief piece about how we can practice mindful handwashing.

Some thoughts on creating a home meditation spot.

Apps

Headspace is a well-known App for learning mindfulness. There is a subscription to access the full range of resources within the App, but a specific free section called 'Weathering the Storm' has been put together in response to Coronavirus.

Insight Timer (Apple, Android) began as a simple timer, but now has thousands of meditations accessible for free. It does include lots of mindfulness as we might find it in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy or stress reduction, but there are also many other approaches to meditation. Insight timer have also launched a website for easy access to the same set of resources.

Practice Downloads

Mark Williams, one of the developers of Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, has released some new grounding meditations of varying lengths (10,20,30 minutes).

Chris Molnar, Clinical Psychologist & President, META & Psychological Wellness Center, has a collection of free mindfulness meditations and articles with an emphasis on relating to anxiety and fear.

Our Free Resources section offers plenty of guided mindfulness practices from a variety of mindfulness teachers. See also the links section for more variety.

Christine Longaker is an author, palliative care and self-compassion trainer and is offering 'Spiritual care resources for illness, dying or grief' as well as a self compassion practice, 'Feeling worthy of love.'

Poetry

Lynn Ungar has written a new poem entitled, 'Pandemic'. The poem begins, 'What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath—the most sacred of times?'

Words to Sit With is our sister site, with a collection of contemporary mindfulness poetry. New poems in response to our current circumstances include 'Together', 'This Long Night' and 'Feeling Frantic in a Peaceful World'.You may wish to peruse the collection, or you might feel inspired to write something and share your words.