Posting quickly here today to share some resources my family has been loving as well as an excellent list of self-care and wellness sites my friend, Maria Logothetis, created. Everyone can benefit from these, not just parents!

Also, today’s morning meditation self-care goal is to take deep breaths. I am exhausted. M was up and screaming from 3 to 5 and then we all got up at 6:30 am for yet another day of making this work. It’s a good thing he’s adorable. Still, being cute doesn’t make up for being underslept. I need to come back to my breath as much as I can today, to center myself, calm myself, and remind myself that this ability to breathe with ease is a true gift, especially here in the middle of Covid City.

• YMCA (Pilates with Melissa!) – Lots of at-home exercise videos, not just pilates.
• Cosmic Kids Yoga – Excellent family yoga site (picture 1 is from family yoga time).
• Frozen 2 – Disney released it early! Free with a 7-day trial.
• Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems – Mo is awesome, interesting, and really handsome. Lew is quite inspired and even wrote Mo some fan mail!
• Education.com – Good worksheets for kids.
• Nat Geo Kids – Cool animal slideshows and facts.
• PBS Kids – Particularly good for computer games.
• Bubbles! – Do I really need to explain this one? Everybody loves bubbles.

Yoga 

• www.downdogapp.com – Offers 5 apps for different workout methods: Yoga, Yoga for Beginners, HIIT, Barre, and 7-minute workouts.  They are offering free subscriptions until July 1 for any students, teachers or staff/administrators in K-12 & College.  All you need is a school email address. They are also offering their services free to the public until April 1st.
• https://www.myyogaworks.com/  – Offering a 14-day free trial with a variety of classes, from beginner to prenatal to advanced. No app; website only.

Meditation/Mindfulness 

• https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/programs-retreats/community-programs/ – Hosts mindfulness retreats and workshops of all kinds throughout the year. Currently offering Free Live Meditation sessions via Zoom on certain days.  Check out their link for details.
• https://kripalu.org/resources  – Kripalu is a yoga and wellness center in Massachusetts.  They run retreats and workshops on a regular basis and have a list of articles and videos to help deal with stress, anxiety and the like, ranging from aromatherapy to cooking to yoga and meditation.
• https://centerformsc.org/practice-msc/guided-meditations-and-exercises/ – The Center for Mindful Self Compassion has some online resources and guided meditations for you to explore. Self compassion is many times the first step to working with difficult emotions, especially fear and anxiety.
• https://tricycle.org/  – This is a Buddhist online publication that has great meditation resources. They post free guided meditations from renowned meditation teachers, both Buddhist and non-sectarian, and have lots of articles for reading more on meditation and Buddhism. They also have a Daily Dharma email you can sign up for, with introspective quotes emailed to you daily.

Podcasts/Audio Talks for Mindfulness & Meditation

• https://www.tarabrach.com/talks-audio-video/  – Tara Brach, a prominent meditation teacher in the West, has a gift for speaking in a way that’s both comforting and relatable. She gives a 30-45 minute talk on a certain subjects and then guides listeners through a meditation.  Available in podcast form for your phone.
• https://pemachodronfoundation.org/ – The cutest and coolest Buddhist nun! Her talks are very calming and focus on all kinds of things. Available for free via this website.  You can also try this website for a quicker download: https://www.learnoutloud.com/MP3-Download/Pema-Chodron.
• https://jackkornfield.com/podcasts-dharma-talks/ – Jack Kornfield is another prominent Western meditation teacher.  He’s a great speaker and also has videos on YouTube.

• Headspace – Focused on guided meditations and tips to help you meditate. Ranges from beginner programs to advanced.  Great place to start.
• Insight Timer – Offers great free individual guided meditations plus meditation programs – a series of meditations – you can pay for. Also tracks the time you meditate so that you can look for trends, etc.
• Calm – User-friendly app with guided mediations.

Food for Thought

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