8 online mindfulness courses to help you find inner calm

Bringing mindfulness in to your daily routine can help you to feel calmer and less stressed, but if you're new to mindfulness it can be difficult to know where to begin.

Mindfulness is a wellbeing practice that encourages you to focus on the present moment and reflect on your feelings without judgement. It has its roots in Buddhism, but these days it's often used as a tool to help people manage stress and anxiety.

It can take time to bring mindfulness into your routine and make it a habit. However, making time for mindfulness can have real benefits for your wellbeing.

A mindfulness course can help you to become familiar with the basic concepts and practices that you'll need to get started. Mindfulness can take many forms including meditation, journalling or even crafting, so it's worth taking the time to find out what works best for you.

You may find that journalling is the easiest activity to help you be mindful in everyday life or that practising gratitude at bedtime helps you to let go of the day's worries. Taking a mindfulness course will help you to discover the practices that you really enjoy.

There are a great range of mindfulness courses out there. Some follow a fixed timetable starting at different dates during the year, while others can be started and followed at any time. We've included a mixture here so you can find one that fits your lifestyle and needs.

Read on to discover the best online mindfulness course for you…

Looking for more mindful inspiration? Discover the best mindfulness journals to help you live in the moment, get into journalling with our What is bullet journalling? guide or learn how to create your own meditation space at home.

Online mindfulness courses to try in 2021

Skillshare is one of the biggest online mindfulness course providers and there are over 200 to choose from, so we've picked out a few of our favourites for this feature.

The writing for self discovery course is a great place to start and it's one that you can begin at any time. This mindfulness course has been created by writer and self-healing advocate Yasmine Cheyenne. She'll guide you through six meditative writing prompts to help you discover the benefits of mindful writing and journalling. You'll develop the tools you need to open your mind and set judgement aside while you write.

To access this course, you'll need to sign up for a Skillshare subscription. You can sign up for a year's subscription for £71.88 (which works out as £5.99 per month, but they take the payment in one go) or you can pay £14 per month.

• Sign up for the writing for self discovery course on Skillshare

FutureLearn has a wide variety of online mindfulness and wellbeing courses for you to try. Many of them have been created by universities, so they're more academic in tone than some online mindfulness courses. A lot of their courses are free to access with an additional fee if you want to have a certificate. Some courses will only be available for a set period of time unless you upgrade to an unlimited membership.

The mindfulness for wellbeing and peak performance is run by Monash University and is a four week course. It offers a practical guide to mindfulness and how you can use it to lower your stress levels. The course covers mindfulness meditation techniques, mindfulness practices to increase your productivity and ways to incorporate mindfulness into your life.

• Sign up for the mindfulness for wellbeing and peak performance course on FutureLearn

Jon Kabat-Zinn is one of the pioneers of mindfulness teaching and brings 40 years of experience to this mindfulness course from Masterclass. Watch over six hours of video to learn mindfulness and meditation skills from a true expert.

The modules include guides to mindfulness and meditation, meditation postures, coping with stress and the science of mindfulness. The videos vary in length: most are around 20 minutes, but they can be up to an hour.

Masterclass memberships are £14.17 a month which is billed annually (£170.04). Masterclass sometimes runs 2-for-the-price-of-one offers and it's worth keeping an eye out for these so you can split the cost with a friend.

• Sign up for Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches mindfulness and meditation on Masterclass

If you'd like to feel calmer at work, then it might be worth taking a look at the mindfulness courses available on Linkedin Learning.

The mindfulness practices course led by coach and author Henna Inam offers a good grounding in mindfulness, covering everything from resilience tips to confidence skills for work (and the rest of your life will benefit too!). The lessons are all short, so you can watch the videos whenever you have a spare five minutes.

Linkedin Learning offers a one-month free trial so you can try their courses before committing to a longer subscription. If you choose to pay annually, Linkedin Learning charges £14.99 a month. If you decide to pay monthly, it will cost £24.98 a month.

• Sign up for mindfulness practices on Linkedin Learning

If you're fascinated by the science of mindfulness, then this is the course for you. The demystifying mindfulness course run by Leiden University on FutureLearn explores popular conceptions and misconceptions about mindfulness, gives you the skills to interpret your own experience of mindfulness and much more. This is a great course if you already have a basic understanding of mindfulness and want to develop your knowledge further. It's a six-week course and they suggest that you study for six hours every week.

The course is led by Chris Goto-Jones, who is an academic and fully trained mindfulness therapist. This course is free, but you can upgrade to get a certificate.

• Sign up for the demystifying mindfulness course on FutureLearn

Take a deep dive into mindfulness meditation with this two-hour course from Skillshare. In this mindfulness course, you'll learn how to mentally prepare yourself for meditation, explore several meditation exercises and discover stay focused during a meditation session. It handles the basics of mindfulness meditation in a clear, informative manner. The course is run by Zachary Philips, who describes himself as a mental health advocate and coach.

Skillshare subscriptions are £71.88 a year (which works out as £5.99 per month) or £14 per month.

• Sign up for the mindfulness meditation mega course on Skillshare

Udemy is another large provider of mindfulness courses, with nearly 2,000 courses on offer. Unlike many other sites, on Udemy you pay for each course separately they range in price from £13.99 to £59.99 for the more advanced courses. Many of the teachers on Udemy are academics or mindfulness experts, so you'll be learning from qualified instructors.

If your mind keeps racing when you're trying to get to sleep at night, then you might benefit from the mindfulness for anxiety and sleep course with Tara Brach Phd. In this mindfulness course, Tara talks about how to distinguish between fear and normal worries, how to use mindfulness to improve your sleep, and how to recognises the causes of anxiety.

This course is two hours and 46 minutes long and costs £20.99.

• Sign up for the mindfulness for anxiety and sleep with Tara Brach course on Udemy

Looking for a more creative way to practice mindfulness? Art journalling is a great way to improve your wellbeing and explore your feelings in a visual way. The course was set up by Marybel Martin, an artist who lives in the Pacific Northwest in the US. She says: "Art journaling is a wellness tool that incorporates creativity, exploration of expression, mindfulness, and connectivity to self."

In this mindful art journalling course, you'll discover why art journals are a powerful mindfulness tool – even if you don't think you're a naturally creative person.

Skillshare subscriptions are £71.88 a year (£5.99 per month) or £14 per month.

• Sign up to the how to art journal for wellness and balance course on Skillshare

Photo by Cottonbro on Pexels.