Free Mindfulness Courses
The advent of the internet has significantly changed the way we learn, live, teach, and grow. One of the great benefits of having global access to countless resources online is the increased availability of many different types of training programs and short courses.
Traditionally, training and education has required costly commitments and was dependent upon one’s location. While these types of programs still exist, we are now able to access high quality, affordable programs from anywhere.
Free mindfulness courses are just one of the many types of offerings now delivered via the internet. Since mindfulness simply requires us to be completely present wherever we are, at-home, online teachings are highly effective for this type of learning.
Why Study Mindfulness Online?
Mindfulness courses are valuable personal resources that build up who we know ourselves to be and how we live in this world. Making the choice to dive into this ancient wisdom is a decision that continually gives back. Once we broaden our understanding of mindfulness, it’s nearly impossible to unlearn what we’ve picked up.
Studying mindfulness online has numerous benefits. In contrast to traditional in-person teachings, online mindfulness courses are:
Affordable
Not all online mindfulness courses are free, but many of them are. It is entirely possible to find high-quality training at low or no cost.
Convenient
Study whenever you want, wherever you want. Online mindfulness programs allow you to learn when it suits your daily schedule.
Flexible
Unlike with more traditional programs (and even many other online learnings), online mindfulness programs often come with no deadlines. You can finish your short course in a day or stretch it out over a period of months.
Personalized
Online institutes offer access to different applications of and approaches to mindfulness. Depending on your interests and personal goals, various programs can be considered. From mindful eating to mindfulness for kids, online resources are widespread.
Intimate and Highly Personal
Exploring mindfulness is above all an inward journey. To understand the world around us, mindfulness draws us into our direct experience of the present moment. It’s an intimate and personal journey supported by online teachings that allow us to study when we feel safe and comfortable in our own environment.
Even if online mindfulness courses are low or no cost, our time is valuable; so, what is the benefit of studying this topic in general? Well, mindfulness courses have benefits that extend beyond those linked to the method of delivery. Mindfulness training and practice can help to:
Studying mindfulness online impacts every facet of our lives, enhancing our knowledge and wisdom over time. This improves how we view ourselves and the world around us. Our actions become more mindful, and as they do, we come to feel more empowered to consciously create the life we have dreamed of.
Types of Free Mindfulness Courses
Amongst the low-cost options for teachings, there are a wide range of offerings to consider. Beginners can look to the Mindfulness Made Easy course to help build a foundation for their mindfulness practice and for continued studies.
This course removes the necessity for understanding spiritual jargon, cutting right to the heart of basic mindfulness meditation. Based on science and reason, Mindfulness Made Easy offers practical, applicable teachings rather than developing a purely conceptual understanding.
Other free courses offered through Mindfulness Exercises include:
Taught by former Buddhist monk and founder of Mindfulness Exercises, Sean Fargo, this online course offers teachings on gratitude to help deepen one’s understanding of the importance of this type of perspective of and relationship to the world (inner and outer). Not only will you learn why gratitude is greatly important, but you will also develop a personal practice to strengthen embodiment of this virtue. Other topics covered in this course include health and relationships, forgiveness, and our connection with the earth.
If you have a beginner’s understanding of mindfulness and would like to take your practice a step further, developing consistency and widening your scope of practice, the 28-Day Mindfulness Challenge is a wonderful course for committing to self-exploration. Requiring only fifteen minutes daily, for 28 consecutive days, this challenge will help to strengthen your personal practice. The daily meditations were written by the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) as part of a mindfulness program created at Google.
As a collective, our relationship to food is complex. Over the years we have become disconnected from the food that nourishes us and from our bodies. Mindfulness of eating is a way of re-establishing those lost connections and in turn, promoting our overall health and wellness. This course helps us to better understand hunger (head hunger included) and facilitates our ability to tune into the hunger within.
Mindfulness courses for children are entirely practical and immersive experiences. Rather than focusing on conceptual information, teachings created for children are experiential. Guiding children through mindfulness exercises designed with them in mind is a powerful way to plant seeds that, when nourished, will blossom into an inspired, mindful life.
Additional free courses exist alongside these ones. When choosing a course for yourself, trust your intuition. Start where you are and let your practice and studies expand outwards naturally.
Premium Courses and Teachers
Premium teachings are also available at a fraction of the price that would be expected in in-person offerings of the same quality. Mindfulness Exercises offers three premium courses with expert teachers to help deepen your learning of various techniques and applications.
Giselle Withers, a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of experience, offers a course on Mindfulness for Better Sleep, helping students to understand how mindset impacts ease and quality of sleep. Another premium course, The Foundations of Well-Being, is offered by Dr. Rick Hanson. The yearlong program is designed to promote happiness, confidence, and peace of mind with staying power.
For those who have spent some time developing their own personal practice and are interested in powerfully impacting the lives of others, online mindfulness teacher training programs exist as well. Through Mindfulness Exercises, Sean Fargo leads a personalized, flexible, and affordable Mindfulness Teacher Training program. It is designed to help aspiring mindfulness teachers to strengthen their natural abilities.
We all come to mindfulness from our own personal experience, whether that be from a history of anxiety, stress, depression, fatigue, insomnia, illness, trauma, or some other aspect of human experience. This training helps students to better understand where they’ve come from, to better understand their true selves, and to uncover the specific and unique gifts they have to offer. Increasingly, people all over the world are struggling with being human, which is why mindfulness teachers are needed now more than ever.
Tools for Staying Committed to Your Course
Finding the continued motivation to maintain mindfulness practice or study can be challenging. Like most things in life, motivation comes and it goes, often leaving us confused about what it is we really want. Mindfulness has the capacity to see through (or beneath) all of these comings and goings, empowering us to take action in ways that are aligned with our highest selves. This makes mindfulness a way of being worth exploring.
To help stay committed to your course, consider the following principles:
1. Surface commitment will likely waver in the beginning; stay the course.
Finding the continued motivation to maintain mindfulness practice or study can be challenging. Like most things in life, motivation comes and it goes, often leaving us confused about what it is we really want. Mindfulness has the capacity to see through (or beneath) all of these comings and goings, empowering us to take action in ways that are aligned with our highest selves. This makes mindfulness a way of being worth exploring.
To help stay committed to your course, consider the following principles:
2. Note where perfectionism rises within.
Most of us like to do things that we’re really good at. As adults (and often as children, too), trying and ‘failing’ is not typically something we are actively encouraged to do. By releasing any ideas of how we “should” or “shouldn’t” be, or how our practice “should” or “shouldn’t” look, we make room for our experience to be totally complete and acceptable as it is. When the perfectionist arises, criticizing your best attempts to learn a new way of being, witness this voice as if you were an outside observer. Watch the transient nature of this voice, and bless it with your highest capacity for compassion and non-judgment.
3. Set goals.
Goal setting is a clear way to make our intentions known. When we keep our ideas of what we’d like to accomplish in the unstable entanglements of the mind alone, our goals tend to be unclear. Putting it down on paper or stating it out loud to a friend or family member helps to solidify what it is we are looking to achieve. Set goals about how often you’d like to practice or study, or when you’d like to have completed a course by.
4. Make space.
Each day, set time aside for your personal mindfulness studies. Whether you can dedicate 15 minutes or two hours to study each day is not as important as continuation. Choose an amount of time that is reasonable given your personal schedule and needs, and create a safe space from where you can dive into this work. Cozy up with herbal tea, blankets, and whatever other personal items will help to reaffirm your commitment. Through inspired intention and focus, we are capable of achieving whatever we set our minds to.
9 Free Mindfulness Courses
The 28-Day Mindfulness Challenge
Every day for the next 28 days, you'll practice some of the world's best tools and practices to build your mindfulness habit.
Mindfulness Made Easy - An Introduction To Mindfulness
This course provides an in-depth introduction to the foundations of mindfulness meditation practice, in an easy-to-follow, 14-day training guide.
Living with Gratitude
Teachings in gratitude to deepen your understanding of this important life perspective, and meditations to easily integrate into your routine.
An Introduction to the 'Search Inside Yourself' Program, Developed at Google
The program teaches you the practical mindful leadership and emotional intelligence tools to bring out your best.
The 4 Foundations of Mindfulness
Teachings in gratitude to deepen your understanding of this important life perspective, and meditations to easily integrate into your routine.
Mindfulness of Eating
Participants will explore the concept of mindful eating and learn the tools of the practice through experiential activities.
Mindfulness Meditations for Kids
Simple but effective. This can be used to help ease worries, anxiety and stress, as well as being a tonic for sleep and relaxation.
UCLA's Guided Meditations (English and Spanish)
For an introduction to mindfulness meditation that you can practice on your own, stream these guided meditations.
Mindfulness Teacher Training
There is an increasing demand for new certified mindfulness teachers around the world. This program will support you to teach mindfulness with confidence.