Stressed?  Trouble sleeping?  Burnt out?  You’ve come to the right place!

Mindfulness is all the buzz these days, though the practice has been around for over 2,500 years – and for good reason!  According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, the physician responsible for introducing mindfulness practices into Western medicine in the 1970’s, mindfulness means “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”  Mindfulness and meditation practices have been shown to decrease stress, improve sleep quality, increase compassion towards oneself and others, and improve overall well-being.  Check out one of the many ways to learn these skills at Yale. 

Ways to Practice Mindfulness & Meditate

• Join a drop-in meditation on campus
• Take a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course.  Yale-affiliates recieve a discounted rate.  Contact the Yale Stress Center for more information. 
• Check out free guided meditations from the Center for Koru Mindfulness and the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center  (we recommend starting with the 3-minute body scan from UCLA)
• Refer to the stress-management page for specific mindfulness skills and other guided meditations
• Mindfulness and meditation apps (note that some are free and/or have in-app fees):
  • Insight Timer
  • MyLife Stop.Breathe.Think
  • 10% Happier (also a great podcast!)
  • Craving to Quit – specifically for smoking cessation; available to students for free*
  • Eat Right Now – specifically for emotional/stress eating; 3 months access available to students for free*
  • Unwinding Anxiety – specifically for anxiety; 3 months access available to students for free*

*contact lauren.horner@yale.edu for an access code

Suggested Mindfulness and Meditation Books:

• Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Real Happiness by Sharon Salzberg
• Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana
• How to Meditate by Pema Chodron
• 10% Happier by Dan Harris (also a great podcast!)
• The Mindful Twenty-Something by Holly Rogers
• The Craving Mind by Judson Brewer