Secular Meditation

A growing body of scientific research documents the benefits of mindfulness practice. The resources below are especially for those who want to explore meditation without exploring Buddhism, are looking for resources to be used in a non-religious context, or want to understand meditation from a more clinical perspective. 

Our Learn to Meditate page highlights the free Unified Mindfulness online course, developed by renowned meditation teacher Shinzen Young

This secular, non-religious approach consists of 10 video-based lessons, each about 5 minutes long. The straight-forward terminology and precise instructions are easy to understand and easy to put into practice. 

This concise, well-designed course is an effective way to learn a robust system of mindfulness practice.


Watch a video of Jon describing mindfulness

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

This well-known program for encouraging mindful living was initially developed at the University of Massachusetts by Jon Kabat-Zinn. 


Books:


Related Programs:

Watch a video of Kristin explaining fierce self-compassion

Metta & Self-Compassion

Another area of research and practice deals with the cultivation of positive emotions and empathy for ourselves and others as a function of a healthy mind and society. There are now documented impacts of metta (kindness) meditation, for example: 


"Results showed that this meditation practice produced increases over time in daily experiences of positive emotions, which, in turn, produced increases in...mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, and decreased illness symptoms. In turn, these...predicted increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms.” (Open Hearts Build Lives, Frederickson et al, 2008)


Resources:

Watch a video of MARC Director, Diana Winston, introducing mindfulness 

Other Research on Mindfulness