Meditation Resources for the COVID-19 Era
As many of you know, I am a big fan of meditation. About 10 years ago, my previous therapist was learning about the connection between mindfulness-based meditation and brain development. He shared with me the basic meditation in Dan Siegel’s book Mindsight, and I was hooked! Shortly after, I completed a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, learning how to apply meditation practices in my daily life beyond my seated time.
Meditation and mindfulness practices aren’t miracle cures for anxiety, depression, or reactivity, but they’ve helped me and my clients quite a bit. Regular practice, even just a few minutes a day, strengthens our mind’s ability to calm itself down and can help us make more purposeful and responsive decisions. If this pandemic isn’t a time to take a few breaths (6′ away, of course) and make some calm decisions, I don’t know when is! So, I began to think about what I could offer you (and myself) that would help us continue to learn about and practice mindfulness throughout this crisis.
Thankfully, the folks over at 10% Happier have put together an excellent Coronavirus Survival Guide full of resources! Founded by a busy news anchor, 10% Happier offers a helpful take on how to integrate meditation and mindfulness into our often-busy lives. You might want to start with their podcast titled “How to Handle Coronavirus Anxiety.”
If you are new to meditation, I’ve found the beginner lessons in the HeadSpace App to be particularly helpful.