As more and more Americans file for unemployment amidst the novel coronavirus shutdowns, the Headspace meditation and mindfulness service is offering up its services to those who may need it most.

Starting this week, Headspace will be offering free one-year subscriptions to all unemployed and furloughed people in the United States in an effort to help support and mitigate the psychological effects of a rising jobless rate in the wake of COVID-19.

This initiative is part of the company's newly-created "Headspace Promise" campaign to care for the mental health of communities at risk of suffering from increased stress and anxiety, particularly since the COVID-19 crisis began. In addition to offering free subscriptions for US, UK, and French healthcare providers on the frontlines of the pandemic, the company is also offering up their free services to K-12 educators in the United States, Canada, Australia, and UK.

Headspace has also announced partnerships with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to provide free Headspace content to residents.

"While meditation and mindfulness can't change our circumstances in life, it can help us change our perspective on those circumstances. And, now more than ever, that's an incredibly powerful skill to learn," said Headspace CEO and co-founder Rich Pierson. "As a company dedicated to improving the health and happiness of the world, we take our responsibility to help support people's mental health very seriously. It's our promise today and for whatever tomorrow brings."

Americans who are unemployed can visit the company's website in order to register for their free Headspace Plus subscription and unlock access to more than 1,200 hours of meditation and mindfulness content including sleep, kids, and mindful movement exercises. In addition to the content in its existing library, Headspace will also be launching six new meditations under a featured collection called "Living through unemployment."

Available May 18th, this collection will include meditations such as: "Adapting to sudden change," "Sadness and loss," "Recovering confidence," and "Finding purpose."

"Job loss can have a substantial negative impact on people's self-efficacy as well as their sense of control, which are two important anchors of mental health," said Headspace Chief Science Officer Dr. Megan Jones Bell. "As a company committed to advancing the field of mindfulness and meditation through clinically-validated research, we know that Headspace meditations have been shown to have favorable outcomes of interventions on key measures like reduced stress, reduced irritability, decreased aggression, and increased resilience. These are really powerful markers in demonstrating how we can support the mental health of those experiencing job loss."

This is just one of many inspiring stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.

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