here for you: coping with covid-19

image by janko ferlič @itfeelslikefilm

Resources for Coping with COVID-19:

Offerings from Lissa ~ Embodied Heart Mind:

~Regular Blog Posts offering reflections on radical embodied care approaches like this post on Alone Together & Not Knowing Together Resources + Guided Benefactor Practice

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Virtual psychotherapy, embodied wellness coaching, and integrative mental health care. Rates, scheduling, and more info here.

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~Online Individual and Group Embodied Practices including Meditation and Movement.  More info here

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~Online BIPOC Embodied Refuge Group Offerings. More info here

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May the rooting and grounding, the flowing and adapting qualities of trees be with you.

photo by @bostonpubliclibrary

Reflections from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh about practicing with difficult emotions from his book Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm:

 “It is in moments like this that we stick to our mindful breathing and gently recognize our afflictions, whether anger, frustration, or fear. Suppose we are feeling worry or anxiety. We practice, ‘Breathing in, I know that anxiety is in me. Breathing out, I smile to my anxiety.’

Maybe you have a habit of worrying. Even if you know it’s neither necessary nor useful, you still worry. You’d like to ban worry and get rid of it, because you know that when you worry you can’t get in touch with the wonders of life and you can’t be happy. So you get angry at your worry; you don’t want it. But worry is a part of you, and that’s why when your worry comes up, you have to know how to handle it tenderly and peacefully.

You can do it if you have the energy of mindfulness. You cultivate the energy of mindfulness with mindful breathing and mindful walking, and with that energy, you can recognize and tenderly embrace your worry, fear, and anger.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

photo by @t_t

Supportive Practices

What brings you comfort and ease? What helps you stay in the present? Stay right here and right now with what is —not off into the fog of the past or the future where worry, projection, and painful memories lie. What helps you let go? It may vary. It may be many things. It may be noticeably supportive some times and not other times. It may be supportive in the long-term but not in the immediate moment. 

It may be: Taking deep breaths. Humor. Song. Music. Moving the body (dance, yoga, qigong, running…). Time in nature. Yoga. Meditation. Reflecting on what you’re grateful for. Journaling. Art. Prayer. Knitting. Spending time in the only space (for some this is the bathroom) where you can get away from everyone in your home for a few minutes…

It’s not a perfect. Not something that will always “work.” Not necessarily something that will help everyone. It’s a practice, something to explore, to try on, to be patient with, to be with regularly without judgment or expectation, as a form of support.

It’s definitely a time for being with supportive practices. Below are some potential resources and practices that may be of support for you.

Meditation & spiritual practices:

~Extensive List of Online Dharma and Meditation Offerings 

~ BIPOC Meditation Communities

~Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield: Pandemic Care, Mindfulness, Compassion Resources

~Kaira Jewel Lingo: Compassion Practice in a time of the Corona Pandemic + Article: In Times of Crisis, Draw Upon the Strength of Peace

~Ten Percent Happier Meditations & Coronavirus Sanity Guide

~Eckhart Tolle and Kim Eng Video Resources

~Iyanla Vanzant: Structured Venting Invitation & Healing White Light Meditation

~Meditation Apps such as Insight Timer or Liberate Meditation by and for BIPOC 

~Dharma Talks and Guided Meditations via Dharma Seed 

Being with the body & releasing and letting go practices:

~8-Week Self-Paced Yoga as Healing for Survivors Series by Zabie Yamasaki

~Online Health and Fitness Classes from the YMCA

~Emotional Freedom Technique/Tapping app 

~Shaking qigong video to release stress and circulate energy by Kim Eng

~Video: How to Attend to Intergenerational Fatigue by Shirley Turcotte

Sound meditation:

~Music playlists for example DJ D-Nice’s Homeschool playlist, Tom Schnabel’s Music for Troubled Times playlists, and Emily King’s So Fresh and So Clean playlist 

~23rd Psalm song by Bobby McFerrin and friends

~Jai uttal psalm song

~Snatam Kaur song: The Angels are Listening

 photo by @ericjamesward

Home Retreat

Perhaps exploring a home retreat may be supportive for you. This could be formal where you set up a schedule and explore practices throughout that time that are supportive for you or informal where you honor where your body is in each moment engaging in helpful activities in a more organic way while still taking care of your everyday responsibilities.

Reflections on Creating a Home Retreat article by Dharma Teacher Jack Kornfield

In the article, Kornfield shares how to set up a schedule for a formal home retreat and offers a number of online resources one can use. He writes: “The purpose of a retreat is to follow a formal rhythm of practice that allows you to center yourself, tend your body, quiet your mind, see the present circumstances with clarity and freedom, and open your heart…Though initially a home retreat may feel unfamiliar or hard, you will gradually find yourself settling in and feeling grateful for the rewards. Now is the perfect time to draw on the inner strength of meditation and deepen your capacity to live amidst it all with awareness and compassion.”

In addition to the resources offered by Kornfield, perhaps you may resonate with Soto Zen Teacher Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s Finding Sanctuary— A Self-Paced Retreat Guidance. 

“What happens to a hurt people? We forget that we are butterflies bearing up in the wild winds. We forget that we are tender from the suffering.”~ Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

Take amazing care of yourselves where it hurts, where there’s fear, where there’s anger, grief, uncertainty, despair, loneliness, scarcity… and know that you are not alone.

photo by @simone_dalmeri 

Wellness Resources

~Crisis Text Line (Text HOME to 741741 if in crisis)

~NJ, NYC, & National Resources Against Domestic Violence (text LOVEIS to 22522)

~Mental Health and Self-Care Kit with Crisis Hotline information by Bokyung Kim

~When the Pandemic Leaves Us Alone, Anxious and Depressed article by Andrew Solomon

~Explaining Covid-19 to Children document

~That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief article by Scott Berinato

~Nine Simple Interventions for Depression by Janina Fisher

~NAMI offers many mental health resources and virtual support groups

~Managing Stress and Anxiety Recommendations by the CDC

~Virtual AA Meetings 

~While at Home tool, resources, and supports

~Spiritual Tools to Relieve Anxiety About the Coronavirus article by Gabby Bernstein 

~COVID-19 Immune & Respiratory Herbs Resource

~ One journey with Covid-19: Timeline, herbs & supplements

~DIY face mask instructions + video (both no sewing) 

~What’s the Best Material for a Mask article

~A letter from the virus, a video by Darinka Montico

~Praise Song for the Pandemic

~Rick Hanson on Resilience

~Brene Brown’s podcast

~Coloring Coronavirus Reward Stickers by Gemma Carroll

~Free Resources for Schools

~Free E-books from North Atlantic Books

~Free books via Audible, Libby app, Scribd

~Lists of free resources from NPR & Chatterpack 

~Free Coursera courses including The Science of Wellbeing via Yale & art classes through MOMA

Collective Care Resources

~Free Resources for HealthCare Providers + 10% happier, headspace, tapping solution, talkspace therapy,  free subscriptions for healthcare professionals

~Resources for HealthCare Providers with Covid-19

~COVID-19 Resource Document for HealthCare Providers

~COVID-19 Resources for Mental Health Providers

~Covid-19 healthcare workers’ Facebook group 

~NYC COVID Worker Care Network & Support Group for Medical Providers

~Managing Health and Nutrition Needs +  Visit 211 for assistance with finding food, paying housing bills, and other essential services

~PSA Safe Grocery Shopping in COVID-19 Pandemic Video

~Collective Care: Resource List by Cindy Milstein & Covid-19 Mutual Aid List

~Additional Resources by adrienne maree brown & generative somatics 

~How To Get On: A self-advocacy guide for folx with disabilities

~A Disability Centered Response to Covid-19

~Queer & Trans Resources in the Time of Covid-19 web site by Max Zev Reynolds

~Know Your Rights Guide for Trans & Non-binary Folx by TLDEF

~Resources for Challenging Times from the Gender Spectrum

~Covid-19 Sex Worker Harm Reduction Resources

~COVID-19 Resources & Healthcare Access for Undocumented Communities

~Tips for Countering Stigma and Racism and Stop AAPI Hate Incident Report Forms for COVID-19 related hate crimes towards Asian American and Pacific Islander folx

~COVID-19 Racial Equity & Social Justice Resources

~Anti-Oppressive/Anti-Racist Home School Options During Quarantine

~Resources for Educators and Families

~Decolonizing Community Care by Jade Begay

~COVID-19 Decarceral Guidelines by The Justice Collaborative

~COVID-19 Freelance Artist Resources & Freelanders’ Relief Fund

~COVID-19 Relief for Small Businesses

photo: wisdom from Minaa B.

***This list will be updated regularly to continue to be a source of support for you.

May you be well

May you be happy, peaceful, and at ease

May you be safe, free from inner and outer harm

May you be free from suffering

With love, 

Lissa E.

In closing, I wish you love song from Miumiu: