We are currently facing an unprecedented moment in history:
Travel has stopped, borders, schools, and offices are closed, and many people are quarantining at home. Understandably, this global pandemic is affecting everybody in the world and the situation is inducing high levels of anxiety, fear, disconnection, and loneliness.
We at Conscious Coliving would like to share some tips and practices to support you through these times. With SPX and Art of Co we have compiled a list of resources from the property and coliving sectors to create a special edition of Coliving Insights that explores how coliving operators are responding to the coronavirus crisis.
We also wanted to provide a few of our wellbeing and community hacks for you to help you through these uncertain and wobbly times. You can find some of these below:
- 8 Wellbeing Leadership Strategies for Responding to Covid-19 from the Global Wellness.
- The Science of Well-Being: this is Yale’s famous online course on happiness. It is now free and on this course you can engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits.
- Daylio: this is a great app to track your moods and daily activities. You can use it to track activities like fitness, meditation, yoga and understand how your mood is changing daily, weekly and monthly.
- Places Matter – Global health and Covid-19: free access to the International Well Building Institute’s Task Force on Coronavirus. The Task Force will both inform new Guidelines for Prevention and Preparedness, Resilience and Recovery and enhancements to the WELL Building Standard itself.
Online Yoga
- Free Yoga Classes: DoYogaWithMe.com offers free, high-definition yoga videos, including classes, yoga poses, and breathing exercises.
- This center for mindfulness is offering free monthly laughing yoga. You can sign up for the next session here.
- A list of Gaia’s best yoga courses.
- Be sure to also check your newsletters as your local yoga center may be offering a bunch of free classes. You can support them by donating for the course!
Virtual Sharing Circles / Spaces
- Sharing circles are safe spaces to share what is alive in us and deeply listen to others. Two of our co-founders have recently launched a Connecting in times of Coronavirus free Virtual Circles campaign. You can find out more and book your free Virtual Circle spot here. They have also co-written a How to Run Your Own Virtual Circle guide, so that you can run circles for your friends, family and communities.
- Online Embodiment Circles can involve gentle movement, meditation, and sharing. To see the schedule of these and register, click here.
- Human Online: through different virtual experiences, you can reconnect to the simple joy of being and share authentic presence with others (thanks to our dear friend Petronella for the share).
- Quarantine Chat: this platform allows you to talk on the phone with someone else who’s stuck at home. It encourages serendipitous conversations that connect isolated people.
Breath hacks
- Breathpod: London-based Stuart Sandeman suggests to “Harness the power of your breathing system for better health & wellbeing”. You can find some great breathacks and online sessions on his website.
- Prana Breath: Calm & Meditate: this app (available on Google Play) helps you “use the power of breathing and meditation to increase your mindfulness and live a better life”.
- Holotropic Breathwork combines accelerated breathing with evocative music in a special set and setting. It is a powerful approach to self-exploration and personal empowerment through breath.
Online Meditation
- Mindfulness Center Plum Village, in partnership with Lion’s Roar, will launch a new virtual summit, In the Footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh, running from March 25-29. In it, several teachers, all students of the famed Buddhist teacher, will present teachings from their tradition. Registration is free, you can sign up here.
- Insight Timer is an app with probably the most active meditation community on the planet. It offers tons of guided meditations, courses, for sleep, anxiety and stress, etc. It also includes Stats, Charts, Milestones, and Groups.
- Headspace helps teach you the life-changing skills of meditation and mindfulness in just a few minutes a day.
Virtual Dancing
- 21 Gratitudes, the founders of Movement as Medicine are offering weekly Tuesday free dance webinars called Shake it Out – Shaking Medicine For Shaky Times. Last week 400+ joined over zoom! Sign up for the next one here.
- In light of recent events, coliving guru Gui Perdrix has launched 24 hour virtual ecstatic dance party with 20 DJs and up to 1,000 remote dancers.
Wrapping up for now
We hope that you are all staying safe, connected and well during these times!
As the days go by the Conscious Coliving team, alongside other coliving partners, will keep on updating Coliving Insights to support the coliving industry.
This article has been coauthored for you by:
Transformational Coach and facilitator. Trainer in mindfulness, sharing circles, and how to live and lead more consciously. Co-author of the Community Facilitation Handbook and the Coliving Apps & Tech Guide. Facilitates community engagement strategies.
Matt is responsible for designing community experience and impact strategies and measuring the social value of coliving communities. Matt is also a founding member and current Head of Community of Co-Liv and has worked for The Collective on their Impact Team.
