It is incredible to think how the world and our lives have changed since our previous blog post. Our February post “Mindfulness and Community” rather ironically focused on the benefits of practicing with others. Never would we have imagined that sitting together a few short weeks later would not be possible. A timely reminder that the uncertainty and change truly is the only certainty.

We are not abandoning our emphasis on community, and in many ways, community is more important than ever before. While the logistics have changed, our commitment to creating community is unwavering. For that reason, we will continue to host our biweekly community sits for the unforeseeable future. Additionally, we are very excited to offer our first Unwinding Anxiety group – more information on this timely group can be found on our webpage.

The outpouring of generosity from the mindfulness community is humbling. Free and low cost offerings are abundant. In many ways, this is what we have been practicing for. There are no preconditions for mindful awareness. In the words of Joseph Goldstein, “anything can happen at any time”. While we might be feeling into this reality more than ever at the moment…it has always been, and always will be true. We hope your mindfulness practice can be a source of support, compassion, and steadfastness during this uncertain time. We are attaching some resources below. Of course, we would love to see you at our weekly sits on Monday 8:30 am, and Friday 12:30 pm. In addition to that offering, you might consider checking out the following:

• Daily, at 12:00pm, the Mindfulness Meditation New York Collaborative offers a Facebook live mindfulness meditation. Meditations are recorded and available if you are unable to make the live sit. Just search for Mindfulness Meditation New York Collaborative on Facebook.
• Jon Kabat-Zinn (the founder of the MBSR program) is offering free, live meditations at 2:00pm. Incredible opportunity to meditate daily with a senior teacher, with practitioners around the globe! Find out more here: http://www.wisdom2conference.com/live
• The 10% Happier App is offering a “COVID-19 Sanity Guide” free to all. You can find meditations, podcasts, talks, and interviews with senior mindfulness teachers – it’s a treasure trove. Access it here: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide
• The New York Insight Meditation Society is offering weekly dharma talks and sits, as well as several online programs. https://www.nyimc.org/
• Daily, free, live meditations by senior self-compassion teachers are available from the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. More information and sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa4af29ab9-free

This is nowhere close to an exhaustive list – we don’t want to bombard you, and we are familiar and very comfortable with the quality of the resources above. If you have stumbled upon other resources that have been supporting you during this time, please share in the comment section below!