We are all being impacted by the covid-19 pandemic in different ways. For most of us, old wounds, beliefs, and/or survival strategies have been activated to some degree. Some of us are going into freeze mode: feeling overwhelmed, and wanting to check out/shut down. Others are going into an aborted flight response (since we can’t actually flee): feeling anxious and hyper-vigilant. Yet others are going into fight mode: resisting what is, or getting angry about how things are being handled. Or we might be cycling through all of them. Whatever our response, we can offer compassion and understanding for what is coming up for us.
While caring for our emotional hygiene can easily go on a back burner in the face of everything else that is happening, feeling grounded is just as important for our immune system as eating the right foods, taking supplements, and hand-washing. The following is a list of some online resources for grounding and dealing with difficult emotions. It is in no way exhaustive and many of the online groups are local (to the Bay Area), but it is a starting place.
Grounding/meditation resources
- Will Kabat-Zinn (Jon’s son) is live-streaming his Sunday evening sangha, 7-9 pm PST (35 minute sit, 5-10 minute break, a talk, and then live Q&A for people who are online). He is also live-streaming his daily meditation practice from 7-7:30am every morning (it’s mostly silent, but it’s a way of meditating in community). To get the zoom link: https://sundaysangha.net/.
- Spirit Rock is offering most of its classes online: https://www.spiritrock.org/ as is the East Bay Meditation Center: https://eastbaymeditation.org/
- Meditation teacher Tara Brach has a list of online meditation classes on the East Coast: https://imcw.org/Calendar/Event-Calendar/categoryId/39
- A new meditation community Grow Awake is holding Thursday evening meditations and classes online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grow-awake-virtual-meditation-tickets-89844548463 and https://growawake.org/
- Musician and dharma teacher Eve Decker is doing music, mindfulness, and in some cases movement classes for individuals and families: https://evedecker.com/calendar/
- This is a blog post of mine on staying centered in crazy times: https://www.radiantwholenesshealing.com/staying-centered-in-these-crazy-times/
- Especially for those of us who feel like sponges for others’ emotions, maintaining our energetic boundaries right now can be challenging. At the bottom of this blog post is a guided meditation to do just that: https://www.radiantwholenesshealing.com/clear-energetic-boundaries/
- There are many helpful meditation apps with guided meditations (including for sleep). This is a list of some of the more popular ones: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/top-meditation-iphone-android-apps. Personally, I use the insight timer.
- This is a list of meditation apps for children/teenagers: https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/assistive-technology/finding-an-assistive-technology/8-meditation-apps-for-kids
Working with difficult emotions:
- Tara Brach has a number of talks on fear and trauma https://www.tarabrach.com/fear/. This is her talk on facing pandemic fears with an awake heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZwg10WYx0.
- Brad Yates has many tap-along videos on anxiety, fear, doubt etc. He put two out recently on dealing with the pandemic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AmQ9ORSNds (dealing with outbreak fear), and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtskU2u0oeY (feeling isolated-being quarantined)
- This is another tapping video by Steph Dobbs for the current situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6uAhJzPIUk&t=1s
- The World Tapping Circle does a weekly online tapping circle (Mondays 6-7pm PST) by donation: https://www.worldtappingcircle.com/
- The following is a meditation by Kristin Neff for being with strong emotions: https://self-compassion.org/wptest/wp-content/uploads/soften,soothe,allow.MP3
- This is a message from Eckhart Tolle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKpmXhGVMxI
- This is a short talk and song on managing difficult emotions by dharma teacher and singer/songwriter Eve Decker: https://www.buzzsprout.com/879223/3040126-episode-5-managing-difficult-emotions
- This is an article for using tapping with kids: https://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/emotional-intelligence/EFT-with-kids
- This is a generic (not on a specific topic) video to teach children to tap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0NUNNhosPU
Online community events
For some of us, this might be a good time to pursue creative endeavors we might not normally have time for (alone or as a family), such as writing, painting/drawing, dancing at home…
For those looking for community events:
- Meetup has made it easy for people to convert their programs to online, and is asking people to include in the title if it is online or not: https://www.meetup.com/. This is an example of a Write and Heal East Bay group that is online: https://www.meetup.com/East-Bay-Write-to-Heal-Circle/events/vqppwqybcfbbc/.
- Crystallin Dillon facilitates relational communication groups (called T-group) in the East Bay, who has started facilitating many online groups: https://crystallindillon.com/bayareatgroup
- The Circling Institute is offering online relational weekend intensives: https://www.facebook.com/events/601713387292061/
Yoga/movement:
While it can seem that being quarantined, on lockdown, or “sheltering in place” would mean having to stay inside all the time that is not the case in most places, and I highly recommend being in nature if possible.
I’m not going to list all the online fitness, yoga, and movement resources available (thankfully, there are many). Local dance, fitness, yoga etc. classes are all going online. Many of those can be found on meetup, too.
My favorite online yoga teacher is Yoga With Adriene. She has numerous free videos, and has created a “yoga for uncertain times” playlist: https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene/playlists. Her rainbow yoga video can be done with the whole family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF7O6-QabIo, and she has at least one video for kids.
This is an example of a weekly online movement class: https://www.jennevieveybarra.com/online-embodiment.
Qigong is also a wonderful movement practice for grounding, and this is one example of classes that have gone online: https://www.qigonginstitute.org/category/8/classes-and-online-qigong
Other:
This is a list of informational and other resources, and includes possible online activities (such as museum virtual tours, and “digital safaris”): https://www.hunterleight.com/covid19-resources
Stay safe and healthy. Feel free to share this with others who might find it useful. If you have other suggestions that might fit in this list you can send them to me, and I’ll be periodically updating the resources on my website.
© Jenny Brav
