Living in Solitude

I get daily reminders that not every thing or everyone is bad.  Here are some of my favorites.  Can you send me your favorites? 

The Greater Good Science Center is an outreach of UC-Berkley.   They study the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being and teach skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.  They offer several newsletters which share the current research to build a better world.  Here's an example of what they do.  Its about how to connect mindfully on social media.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the home of the Center for Healthy Minds.  Developed and directed by  Richard Davidson as an extension of his work with the Dalai Lama on how to build positive mental states.    “I envision a day when mental exercise will be as much a part of our daily lives as physical exercise and personal hygiene.” 

The Science of Well-Being with Dr. Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology at Yale University.  Over 500,000 students have completed this class and rated it 4.88 out of 5.  Learn skills like remembering to be grateful, how to have realistic expectations, and how to be mindful.

A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment with Dr. Raj Raghunathan, professor of Marketing at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. The course is taught through the Indian School of Business and is an excellent introduction to the science of happiness. 

 Online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) (FREE)  This is the course that is the basis for the MBSR & More class that I have been teaching locally over the last couple of years.  There are a series of great on-line videos for instruction and detailed descriptions of how to develop both a formal meditation and informal mindfulness practices.  And just in, here is a link to a new page with covid19 resources from Dr. Potter.

As you send me your links, I will add them here.  If you have the ability to support these resources by paying for classes or donating, please consider doing so.  Let's build a culture of generosity together.

Spirit Rock is offering a series of donation based programs on Monday nights with Jack Kornfield and friends.  Jack will present on June 1 and July 20.  

Tara Brach's website is constantly being updated with new courses, question and answer opportunities and her weekly teachings are typically streamed live on Wednesday evenings.  

Loving, Knowing and Growing Offered as a free on-line event with Tara Brach, Rick Hanson and Joseph Goldstein  at the beginning of our solitude, it continues to be available as a  free four lecture series from Rick Hanson.  

It looks like  Jon Kabat-Zinn will continue to offer his daily meditations through Wisdom 2.0 on weekdays at 11:00 PDT.  Jon developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that gave empirical support to the value of mindfulness in stress management.

Jack Kornfield, master meditation teacher and one of the earliest western Buddhism teachers, has developed a resource page of coping with corona.   

Bodhi College is offering an 12-week program called Thinking Out Loud: Conversations on Early Buddhism with Stephen Batchelor and his colleagues at  Bodhi College.  A group of scholars interpreting the early layer of Buddha's teachings and offering them for dana (donation) in this time of solitude.  Th series will continue on Sundays from 11 - 1 in June. 

 Tricycle.org  

Tricycle is an eclectic Buddhist oriented magazine that has been offering on-line teachings for many years.  I can personally recommend the course on Mindfulness from Bodhi College where Stephen Batchelor teaches.  See here for their course catalog.  And there are now some  Online Practice Sessions Sign-up for the latest teachings.

Lions Roar 

emerged out of the Shambhala Tradition but has become more  eclectic and open to all Buddhist traditions in recent years.  They have a selection of on-line courses in a variety of traditions.

Sounds True is a publishing company for all things spiritual.  The have offered courses by such notables as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Pema Chodron, Jack Kornfied, Tara Brach.

The Awake Network  has a number of links  for free online meditation resources for Times of Social Distancing.  There are a lot of resources on this page so check it out.

Insight Timer is my personal favorite.  At the free level, there are more than enough guided meditations to satisfy a beginner.  After 3 -4 years of using this timer, you may want to upgrade, just to thank them for all the free meditations you had been listening to.  A small percentage of their profits go to the teachers that you have been listening to rather than to the corporate stockholders. 

The app from the Center for Healthy Minds, Richie Davidson's non profit organization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is free for individuals and presents reputable science based programs to improve well-being and happiness.  

Rather than me telling you which other apps you can try, here is a review from Mindful.org reviewing Free Mindfulness Apps Worthy of your Attention, published in November 2019.  This organization has quite an impressive Board of Advisors.  Check out their website.

If you think that you may be troubled by Covid 19 more than you think you should be, there are several local professionals with strong knowledge in mindfulness practices who can help.

Jen Johnson a local Mindfulness Coach, was recently featured  in a program offering Mindfulness for Emotional Resilience during COVID 19.  She offers resiliency coaching and is appreciated for her talent with photography and creative writing.  

Tara Ferguson, Ph. D., a local clinical psychologist,  has put together a group of counselors and therapists with interests and expertise in sharing the mindfulness practices with those who most need them.  All services provided via telehealth at this time.

Heather Till is a local Wilmington yoga teacher who offers several options for on-line Therapeutic Yoga classes.  Her yoga is inspired and the site is easy to use. 

Logan Marks is building a Positive Psychology career and has recently taken an online coaching job with Noom, a coaching based app designed to help people lose weight, get fit, and stay healthy. He is a CMA certified Mindfulness and meditation teacher.  

Also see our webpage for a listing of local mental health professionals with expertise in mindfulness or the list provided by the Cape Fear Psychological Association.

The first retreat experience I ever had (unless you call sailing around the world for four years on a 37' sailboat a retreat experience) was with Sylvia Boorstein's book  Don't Just Do Something, Sit There.  Several Meditation centers are now offering live streaming of dharma talks, meditation periods, and retreats,  Here (Gaia House, Spirit Rock) are a couple of them.  Let me know if you find other on-line retreat opportunities.