Italy has now been on lockdown for three weeks, and speaking from personal experience, filling your time with something worthwhile can be a challenge.
In some of my previous posts, I pointed out that working on your personal growth is a great way to occupy your time and to stay positive.
Bearing this in mind, I’ve decided to change things up today, and put together a list of some of the amazing free resources that you can use during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Yale University – Free online course on how to be happier
One of the American university’s most popular online courses ‘The Science of Well-Being’ is completely free to sign up. The course itself was designed to teach you how to be happier, and gives a lot of food for thought, incorporating positive psychology with real-life applications of behavioural science.
You can enrol to this online course, completely free here.
Headspace – Meditation
Headspace is an English-American online healthcare company, specialising in meditation. During the lockdown they are offering free access to the Headspace collection called Weathering the Storm. This collection includes meditations, sleep, and movement exercises, all in order to reduce anxiety and stress.
You can find the link here.
Audible.com – Audio books
Audible, an Amazon company, normally sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programmes, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers, however in response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Audible has made a large number of children’s and classic titles free to access via its website, with no sign-in required.
You can find the link here.
Take a free virtual tour of one of the 10 best museums and galleries in the world
– Pinacoteca di Brera – Milan, Italy
– Galleria degli Uffizi – Florence, Italy
– Musei Vaticani – Rome, Italy
– Archaeological Museum – Athens, Greece
– Museo del Prado – Madrid, Spain
– Louvre – Paris, France
– British Museum – London, UK
– Metropolitan Museum – New York, USA
– Hermitage – Saint Petersburg, Russia
– National Gallery of Art – Washington DC, USA
Fender Play – Guitar Lessons
The famous guitar manufacturer Fender, are now offering three months free access to their ‘Fender Play’ guitar, bass and ukulele lessons. This offer is available to the first 500,000 people who sign up.
You can find the link here.
HomeSchoolPiano – Piano Lessons
As part of their “Give Back” programme, HomeSchoolPiano is giving free access to anyone who is interested in learning the piano at home. Everyone who signs up to this course, will be given full access to ‘HomeSchoolPiano Level 1’ which according to the website, takes most students 6 months to a year to complete.
You can find the link here.
Archive.org – Education
Archive.org have announced their National Emergency Library – a collection of over 1.4 million books that, according to their website, “support emergency remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual stimulation while universities, schools, training centres, and libraries are closed.” This access will expire on June 30th 2020.
You can find the link here.
Berliner Philharmoniker – Music
The Philharmonie Berlin are currently offering 30 days of free access to the Digital Concert Hall. This includes over 600 orchestral concerts from the Berliner Philharmoniker in the Digital Concert Hall from more than ten years, bonus videos from behind the scenes, documentaries on the history of the orchestra, and portraits of conductors and orchestra members.
You can find the link here.
World Health Organisation (WHO) – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) online training
In order to assist UN country teams in scaling up country preparedness and response to COVID-19, WHO has developed a number of online learning modules. This training is intended for healthcare workers and public health professionals, however, it is full of important information on infection prevention and control.
You can find the link here.
Children’s activities – Ideas to keep children occupied during lockdown
Explore this list of 50+ ideas for activities at home with kids.
You can find the link here.