Make a Date to Meditate

Join “Monday Meditations” on Facebook, Friday Workshops on Zoom

Two ways to meditate with COVID Support VT to combat Covid stress and increase resilience.

Are you a wannabe meditator? Maybe you’ve heard about the great mental health benefits of meditating but don’t know where or how to start. Or maybe you’ve been meditating for years and want to mix up your practice a bit or try something different. Maybe life during Covid is stressing you out, and you need another strategy for coping.

Whether you’re a rank newbie or an experienced practitioner, COVID Support VT offers two opportunities every week to join an expert facilitator in a guided meditation practice.

• On Facebook starting in January, join “Monday Meditations” for a 10-minute lunch-time reset with a guided practice focused on getting grounded and calm through breath and mindful attention. Every Monday at noon (excluding Jan. 17). Sign up here.
• Every other Friday, join a free virtual workshop via Zoom for a one-hour guided practice exploring different meditation techniques. Register here.

Give Your Mind a Break

“With the weight of the pandemic on top of all the stressors and distractions of daily life, it can be easy to forget to give our minds a break — or be unsure how to do that,” says Nate Reit, support counselor at COVID Support VT. An experienced facilitator, Reit expertly guides each meditation with a soothing calmness that sets a tone of mindful presence.  

“Guided meditations are great because you don’t have to think about what you’re doing or know what to do,” Reit says. “Even for an experienced meditators like myself, it can be really nice to just relax and be led. I join guided meditations all the time!” 

Making Time to Meditate

Meditation may be one of those things that you know is good for your health and well-being. In fact, when it comes to supporting your self-care and wellness, it ranks right up there with getting good sleep and eating whole, nutritious foods. This is especially true during stressful times like these. Yet, even with the best of intentions, we may find it difficult or downright impossible to find the time we feel we need to meditate. And we may wonder if we can really get the benefits of meditation without devoting significant time to some image we have of what meditation should look like. 

Reit reminds us that we don’t need a lot of time to get the benefit of meditation. “Actually, even a one minute reset can be helpful,” he says. And you don’t need to sit on a special cushion in pretzel pose and hand mudras – unless you want to. The point is to show up, to slow down into stillness and present-moment awareness, even for a moment. 

“Through simple breathing and mindfulness exercises, we can allow ourselves to put down the weight of all the things we need to do and all the ‘what-ifs’ of life, even for a few moments,” says Reit. Attending to our self-care through meditation interrupts the pattern of stress. “We gain a sense of peace and calm that can last well beyond our practice time,” he says. “As we train ourselves to be more aware of our mental state, we can prevent stress from piling up.” 

Learn to Meditate and Find Resources 

Join Monday Meditations with Nate Reit, livestreaming on Facebook every Monday at noon. Sign up here. Follow COVID Support VT’s Facebook page for updates and replays.

Attend our free virtual workshop, Wellness Through Meditation, every other Friday at 1:30 p.m. Register here.

Download a 10-minute guided mindfulness meditation to foster mental and physical relaxation, presence, and ease. (Mp3 format).

Find other meditation resources, apps and videos in the Self-Help Resources section at COVIDSupportVT.org.

Read “Making Meditation a Wellness Habit” from our blog for more on the science and practice of meditation, in all its forms.

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Blog written by Brenda Patoine on behalf of VCN/Vermont Care Partners for COVID Support Vermont, a grant funded by FEMA and the Vermont Department of Mental Health

Need to Talk?

Call 2-1-1 (in Vermont) for assistance.

In Crisis? 

If you or someone you care for is experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm, you can: call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-825; text VT to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7; connect with your local community mental health center for 24/7 support. 

Find Help

Find resources and tools for coping with stress at www.COVIDSupportVT.org.

One-click translation to 100 languages of most everything on the COVIDSupportVT.org website, plus Multilingual Resources.

Find your local community mental health center by visiting Vermont Care Partners.

COVID Support VT is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency, managed by Vermont’s Department of Mental Health, and administered by Vermont Care Partners, a statewide network of 16 non-profit community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disability services and supports.