10 Best Mindfulness Training Courses 2021: Reviews and Pricing

12 min readMay 7, 2021

You must have already listened a lot about Mindfulness, but do you really understand what is it about and where to get some training?

The practice of Mindfulness itself is bringing awareness into the present moment being non-judgmental. It started from the oldest Buddhist meditation practice, Vipassana which is a direct and gradual cultivation of Mindfulness.

Within this type of meditation several programs were developed such as Mindful eating, MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), MBCT (Mindfulness-Based cognitive therapy) and Mindfulness Meditation. It became such a popular practice starting with the fact that even when it comes from a Buddhist practice it does not promote nor depends on any religion, belief, system or ideology, so everybody is welcome.

If you want to have a Mindfulness training to integrate this practice as part of your lifestyle: in the workspace, while exercising, interacting with your family and friends, in school, it would be helpful if you get one of the available courses online simply because if you just read a book about it sometimes gets complicated to actually take the knowledge to practice, specially when it comes to know what to do when your mind wanders. In a course you will be able to understand better the mind wandering process since someone with experience will be there to guide you for you to keep up with your mindfulness meditation practice.

Why Mindfulness Meditation?

One of my favorite authors, Joe Dispenza, explains very well the correlation between Meditation and Neuroscience. I read his book “Breaking the habit of being yourself” and is fascinating the science that exists behind the effect of our energy in the Quantum field and how with neuroplasticity we can create a new level of mind. If you want to know deeply about the science behind meditation I highly recommend that book.

Simply because the everyday life pace that we are now is getting faster, starting to act as programmed machines (auto pilot mode) is becoming the new “normal”. How often does it happen to you that while driving you suddenly forget to pay attention to what you are doing or where you are going?

We could have a more happy, kind and generous society if more people implements this discipline to find themselves again and have a less vulnerable mind when it comes to everything that happens around us.

Is not a coincidence that the wellness industry has been growing in the last years. We act as human capital constantly being asked to be more productive and efficient, we also live with the pressure on us of having to pay bills, meet society standards and if that wasn’t enough suddenly something as unpredictable as a pandemic hits us and creates discomfort in our lives. The solution is never all about changing the environment and our surroundings (although it helps) but about making ourselves mentally stronger for our daily life challenges and situations that we need to face, we need mindful awareness.

It is already proven that mental health should be a priority for our society. Numbers don’t lie, according to a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology the percent of people with major depressive episodes in the ages of 12–25 has been increasing dramatically.

If you want some specific reasons of why you should take a look into one of the following courses, let me mention the effects of mindfulness that I have personally experienced:

Mental clarity
Sharper senses
You see life from a more relaxed perspective
You laugh more frequently
Better at conflict resolution
More empathy towards others
Life pace feels slower
Self-love grows and also love to others
Gratitude is more present
You stop wishing so much, you are more present
Self-care becomes and stay priority

If I could put the effects of mindfulness in one sentence: the mind becomes invulnerable because is no longer disturbed by the ups and downs of life.

Excited enough? In this article, we’ll go over 10 online Mindfulness courses that I consider the best in 2021. You will also fin a section where I specify which websites include a teacher training course. I would also cover some basic information about this discipline for those who get overwhelmed by all the information available out there, let’s get started.

10 Best Mindfulness Meditation Trainings

1. Medschool from UCSD

You can’t go wrong when it comes to going to UCSD, a recognized school, to take a training. They have an online program available for MBSR with a cost of $620 that you can finish in 18 days, 2.5 hrs. each day. There are different dates available and they also offer other courses related to the practice of Mindfulness online such as Mindful self-compassion, mindful eating and and introduction to Mindfulness with a cost of $200. You can find al the courses available for Mindfulness training here.

The introduction to Mindfulness program they have is actually very complete for someone who is new to the subject since it includes:

Sitting Meditation
Body Scan Meditation
Mindful Movement
Mindful Eating
Mindful Walking
Threat Reactivity & Stress Management
The Neuroscience of Mindfulness
Taming Digital Distractions
Mindful Communication
Mindful Self-compassion

I enjoy visiting their website because they offer so many resources for free that you can access anytime.

2. Palousse Mindfulness

With 12 years of experience Dave Potter a certified instructor of MBSR decides to offer the content of a whole course for free. It is an 8 week program and you do not require to sign up, the content is right there in his website. He also offers a certificate at the end of the course if you submit practice sheets as proof that you completed the program and a letter of what you learned. If you also want to support Palousse Mindfulness you can donate at the end but is not necessary. There will be a community of graduated people waiting for you once you complete it, which is a great motivation to keep up in the practice constantly.

3. INLP Center

This course is divided in 13 modules and they will provide you with a meditation practitioner certification at the end with a cost of $499. They include: a downloadable 44-page Journal Work, unlimited live mindfulness training sessions with certified Mindfulness Training Instructor, expert support when you need it via email, online chat, phone and online classrooms and a community to meet others.

The program is divided in the following modules:

What is mindfulness?
Why practice mindfulness?
How to practice mindfulness?
Mindfulness of the body
Mindfulness of feelings
Mindfulness of the mind
Mindfulness of the objects of the mind
Walking meditation
Informal mindfulness practices
Mindfulness and NLP
Mindfulness and the perception of time
Ego and the notion of self
Final assignments

4. Shaw Academy

They provide the first 4 weeks of the live online course for free, although this is a 16 weeks course covered in 4 modules. After the free access for 4 weeks they would charge $69/month and with that membership you will be able to access all their other courses as well. If you just want to cover the mindfulness content then you will need an investment of at least $207.

The content is divided in 4 modules:

Mindful practice (it would be for free with their offer since it is covered in the first 4 weeks)
Intermediate in mindful practice
Advanced in mindful practice
Proficient in mindful practice

I consider their program is very complete, just so you can have an idea in the first module they cover:

Bring your whole being
Cultivating the attitude (of gratitude)
The foundations 1
The foundations 2
Myth-busting and mindful practice tools
Connectedness: mind and body
Addressing stress and health
Everyday mindfulness: the power of being present

5. Mindful online learning

If you want a quick course with the basic tools of mindfulness and at a very affordable price ($125) the course “Get Started with Mindfulness”, provided by the psychotherapist Elaine Smookler, can be a good option if you are not looking for an extensive program.

During this course you will learn to:

Drop into a state of calm, expansive perspective whenever you need it
Defuse a stress spiral in minutes
Interact with the world with less angst and more kindness
Experience greater spaciousness and freedom in any situation
Improve your relationships, including the one with yourself
Transform your experience of pain, even with chronic conditions
Create awareness of how your default thoughts and reactions control your mind and behaviors, and instead choose how you want to be

6. ART Mindfulness Programs

In ART they offer a live online course with different dates available (you can find the dates in the gray box in the right side of the included website) for MBSR course with a cost of $375 + purchasing “A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook”. At the end of the course you will be able to:

Describe the foundational principles, theory and practice of mindfulness
Describe how the practice of mindfulness can reduce stress
Identify two physiological effects of stress on health
Identify two psychological effects of stress on health
Identify two clinical applications of mindfulness practice
Describe how mindfulness can enhance therapeutic interpersonal relationship skills
Identify three mindfulness practices to prevent compassion fatigue & professional burnout

7. Centre for mindfulness studies

Patricia Rockman is ready to guide you in this course that costs $520 in the Centre for mindfulness studies. It is a course based on MBSR so they are focused on teaching you skills for you to develop the capacity for greater calm and manage stress. You will cover the content in 8 weekly sessions that last 2.5 hrs. each, plus and orientation and interviews with a total of 23 hrs. for the whole course.

8. CHA Center for Mindfulness and compassion

The instructor Natalia Cepeda will be teaching this course making each session highly participatory. The training is based in the MBSR program and it encompasses a wide array of mindfulness practices, including sitting and walking meditation, mindful eating and mindful communication. It has a cost of $600 and it is a live course access through Zoom.

9. RAM DASS

With an 8-week live course that costs $108 or if you can’t afford it you can contact them to have access to the content for free. Every week during the course they talk about a new theme/lesson having a variety of instructors. True essence +identity, Purification, Transforming difficult emotions and Cultivating the heart of compassion are some of the themes they have as part of their curriculum.

10. MNDFL

If you are looking to know the fundamentals they have available an Introduction to Mindfulness course that lasts 2hrs for $47, and they cover:

Context of Modern Mindfulness
Origin & History
Roots, Lineages, Branches & Streams
Buddhism & Wisdom Traditions

You can also find an intensive training for $997 that is covered in 25 hrs. (they include the Intro to mindfulness course as well) that is directed for Coaches, Therapists, Yoga Instructors, Social Workers, HR & Education Professionals and Dharma Teachers & Leaders.

Teacher training courses

If you want to start helping others with this beneficial practice and become a mindfulness teacher, here are some places where you can find a certification:

Mindfulness Certification Training
Dr. Kay Colbert, with over 300 hours of mindfulness training will be guiding you in this course that you would complete a whole program in 6 different dates total. Its price is $699 standard or $799 if you need CE credits.
ART Mindfulness Programs
In ART they offer certification for teachers with a cost of $2500. You would have to go through an application process sending resume or CV and letter of intention stating why you want to take the program since they have limited capacity.
CHA Center for Mindfulness and compassion
They only offer a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher Training Intensive with a cost of $1495. You will be able to take this course after taking the MBSR training mentioned in the list above ($600).
Medschool from UCSD
UCSD has a very complete Mindfulness program ready to certify future teachers in MBSR. In order to get their certification you need to go through 2 phases: teacher qualification and teacher certification you first need to enroll in the Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute ($380 for application and mentorship fee), after this you will pick your mentor
MNDFL
Just as mentioned above MNDFL has courses for people that want to just learn about Mindfulness but of you are looking for the full certification you will need to get the full package for $1994.

Even with the increase of information about Mindfulness, it is not just something trending. As a meditator and Mindfulness instructor I firmly believe is something that started to grow to stay with us sine it is an amazing tool to reach well-being.

Even when guided meditations have been enough for me in this journey I am always looking for more ways to integrate the discipline in an easier way. During those days when you feel burnout, stressed out, overwhelmed it gets more difficult to apply Mindfulness that is why constant mindfulness exercises are essential and having a program specifically developed to teach us how to approach every situation being mindful will be helpful. If you took one of the training programs from the websites mentioned above, let us know your thoughts about them and make this important decision: mind full or mindful?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are some mindfulness exercises?

Take (15) mins to sit down (on a cushion, chair or sofa), close your eyes and focus on the sensations that arise on your body in relation to the temperature, sounds around you and smells.
While sitting (to me it works better with the eyes closed but you can also keep them open) observe the breathing process from the beginning of the inhalation and its maximum point, when you can experience a brief stop, continue observing the exhalation until it reaches another stop, before starting a new breathing cycle. Do this exercise for (5) minutes, (3) times a day or one session of (15) mins.
Look for a flat floor (either indoors or outdoors) where you can have at least 15 fts. of distance to walk freely without any obstacles. Make sure you are keeping a straight posture, eyes looking forward so you can keep your chin up and drop down your shoulders letting your arms be hanging by their weight completely. The exercise consists on observing a very unconscious process like walking and trying to make it conscious. Talking about this observation process I would recommend the following steps for it:

pick a focal point before starting your first step located at the other end of where you are walking towards.
Pay close attention on how your foot starts to raise up and the relation it has with your knee, you calves, your hips, everything is connected. Try to start finding where you start having the first sensations during your walking process
Pay close attention on how your foot starts to get in contact with the floor and the relation it has with your knee, you calves, your hips. Observe how the weight of the leg itself helps in the process of completing your step.
Observe how you body balances with its weight so you can start moving the other foot to start the next step
Repeat step 2 and 3 for this other foot.
Stay aware of all the thoughts that may arise during this exercise and that may interrupt you from paying attention to your walking.
If the exercises mentioned above still too hard you can decrease the time on them or start with some relaxing activities like coloring mandalas or journaling your thoughts before starting any of those exercises. The walking meditation exercise can be done in a quiet hiking place or in can be done inside of your house if you just have a short time to do it, even in your living room.

2. What is Mindfulness Based Training?

There are several programs that have been developed applying the fundamentals of Mindfulness, therefore they can be called Mindfulness Based Trainings. One of the oldest ones is MBSR which a stress reduction program developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts, it was developed since 1979. Another one is MCBT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and Mindful Eating. Is there a better one? I believe is more related on what works better for you, for your lifestyle, for the time you want to spend on developing the practice and depending on how deep you want to develop the practice of Mindfulness.

If you normally struggle with high leves of stress then taking a MBSR training could be your best option. In my personal opinion I rather take a Mindfulness training since I can take a more general approach of Mindfulness and I can take a look at the different programs that are offered to be integrated in a more modern way versus with the MBSR that is a conventional program that was developed years ago. Although either Mindfulness training or a MBSR training will be very helpful for any lifestyle since they both come from the same principles.

3. What’s the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

Meditation is the science that is in charge of studying the systematic process of training the mind. There are a lot of styles of meditation out there, Mindfulness is one of them and it’s main goal is to reach awareness mainly using the breathing. Just to mention another meditation styles: Yoga, tai chi, Trascendental, Qi Gong, Zen, and Chakras focused.

4. What are the three components of mindfulness?

Relaxation: surrender with the pull of gravity
Resilience: there’s is always motion around us then accept, yield and surrender to the natural forces that affect and move through us.
Integration: Integration of alignment (posture), relaxation and resilience.