Resources
I’m often asked what are good resources to learn more about mindfulness. There are so many! I’ve put together my list for you. These are fantastic resources and have LOTS to offer. Enjoy!!!
Guided Meditation Podcasts
Some of my favorite podcasts with guided meditations are:
Mind Time Michael Chaskalson Mindfulness
Mindfulness+ with Thomas McConkie
Live Awake
Metta Hour with Sharon Salzburg
Therapy Thoughts: Mindfulness episode
Mindfulness & Parenting Podcasts
Some of my favorite podcasts for mindfulness and parenting include:
Mindful mama – Parenting with mindfulness – Hunter Clarke-Fields
Zenparentingradio
Meditation Apps
Some of my favorite meditation apps include:
Stop, breath, & Think (Each time you meditate it asks you to label your feeling and offers meditations for that feeling)
Calm (Lovely outdoors photos/video/audio/nature music you can choose from—Great breathing visual under ‘More’ and ‘Breathe’)
Headspace (Great british accent and fun animations)
Insight Timer (Extensive options – amazing choices)
Mindfulness (Choose silence, forest, beach, or river sounds, Not as many free options)
Some notes on these apps:
Most of these apps allow you to set reminders to meditate. You can choose to have silence or other peaceful sounds.
There are both free or paid options as well as guided or silent meditations to choose from. Some also have audios that teach you how to meditate or explain why.
Try one and explore what is free and then try another one. Find the voice and style of graphics/animations that you like.
If the voice or descriptions are irritating to you, no need to stick with it since there’s so many options.
You can switch to a male or female voice on some, or just try a different app.
Most allow you to choose how long, 3 – 5 minutes to start or longer, even just 1 minute of breathing.
Some give you helpful thoughts or quotes that remind you to apply the mindfulness during the day. Headspace and Mindfulness in particular
Other tools
Here are a few other tools that are helpful:
Books
Some of my favorite meditation books include:
Books for Beginners
Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: a 28 day program by Sharon Salzburg—Short and simple 28 day program to learn mindfulness meditation
Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn—Short chapters ( 2 or 3 pages) teaching concepts and daily mindfulness activities/ meditations
Peace is every step – Thich Nhat Hanh—Short chapters (1- 3 pages) teaching concepts and daily mindfulness activities/ meditations
The New Mindfulness – a TIME special Edition magazine—Brief and accessible, covers a wide range of mindfulness topics and categories and how to’s
Books with a course of study/audio
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn—discusses the Stress Reduction clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and teaches you how to do the 8 week course that is taught at the stress clinic. It involves meditating for 45 minutes a day for 8 weeks. This is a deep explanation of the concepts. This is the course I took 3 times and recommend it.
The Mindful Way through Depression —Shorter and easier intro to the concepts in Full Catastrophe Living, applied to depression, audio included
Books for deeper study
Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg—Short explanations of what lovingkindness is and meditations to do it.
Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff—Research and info on self-compassion and how to use and develop it.
The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer—Deeper dive into learning self-compassion with activities to assist the process.
A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield
Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Radical Acceptance by Tara brach
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