Mindfulness and Compassion-based Check-ins:

 Sessions are for front-line staff and trainees and are held for 30 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 5:30-6 pm including weekends. You and your colleagues are working under extraordinary circumstances. The immense pressure of caring for COVID-19 patients, your own vulnerability to infection, and the shortage of essential equipment, are all enormous stressors. Feelings of distress, anxiety, frustration, and anger are common and to be expected. Frontline health care professionals are particularly vulnerable to longer-term mental health consequences, so taking action to care for your mental and psychosocial well-being during this time is as essential as caring for your physical health.

These drop-in sessions are designed to help you take care of yourself, putting on your own oxygen mask to help you care for your patients, your loved ones, and yourself. You don’t need to be a meditator or become one to benefit from these sessions. We will focus on brief mindfulness and compassion practices that you can use to calm your mind, nurture your spirit, and open your heart. Severe stress unleashes a steady stream of negative thoughts that fuel cycles of anxiety and despair. Through mindfulness practice we get out of our head, grounding ourselves in the body in order to meet emotional distress with greater awareness and less reactivity. Compassion practices help us to stay connected with our natural feelings of compassion and of shared humanity, one of the best ways we can take care of ourselves.

Each session will start with a 10-15 minute mindfulness and/or compassion practice. Then participants will have a chance to share reflections on their experiences working on the frontline. The sessions end with a 1-2 minute closing practice.

Join us on zoom here. We will add or adjust sessions based on needs, preferences and capacity. There are other opportunities for mindful practice listed on the CMC website.