How to Be More Present During Quarantine?

On Wednesday 4/1 at 5 pm EST I had a conversation with Abigail Somma and Kathleen Stetson. We talked about mindfulness in quarantine and tools to be more present.

Abigail Somma offers trainings in mindfulness and emotional intelligence, with the goal of creating more connected, engaged and creative workplaces. She has facilitated for groups in Vienna, New York, London and Bratislava, and has teacher-training certificates from the Nalanda Institute of Contemplative Science (NYC) and Search Inside Yourself (San Francisco), the renown Google-born course taught in companies around the world. She is also a writer with experience in speechwriting, playwriting and journalism. Past employers/clients have included the UN, the World Bank, UNICEF, think tanks, NGOs and others; and her plays have been performed in NYC, LA and abroad. While she believes institutions have a role in promoting peace, she has come to believe that peace comes to the world one person at a time. You can find her at www.themindfulgoods.com

Kathleen Stetson, entrepreneur coach and founder of Rational Confidence, uses her entrepreneurial experience and a data-driven approach to help many-hats-wearing people better understand themselves and the world around them.

A former opera singer and acoustical engineer, Kathleen made her career bringing people together at the intersection of arts, science, and business. She founded a funded arts/tech startup while getting her MBA at MIT and co-founded MIT's Hacking Arts – the world's first arts+tech festival and hackathon, now in its seventh year – before consulting for startups and arts institutions, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The depression she experienced during and after her first company’s failure – coupled with a constant low-level migraine she has had since 2010 – spurred her extensive research into wellness, meditation, and mindfulness, which has culminated in the methodology she uses to help clients across the country. Her self-awareness program for MIT’s 2019 delta v accelerator produced the first statistically significant data showing the benefit of self-awareness techniques for entrepreneurs. This month she launches Rational Confidence, a community of founders and senior startup team members who want to shift startup culture away from burnout and toward self-awareness and healthier – and more successful – company cultures.

She is a student of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Zen Buddhism. She holds a BA from Harvard, an MM from New England Conservatory of Music, an MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from MIT Sloan.