Prioritize Wellness. Find peace through Meditation.

We’ve always been big believers in wellness—it’s a huge part of our team’s lifestyle. Of course, during these pandemic days, prioritizing wellness is especially critical. It’s all about maintaining a sense of balance and optimizing physical and mental health.

When gatherings resume, we hope to see wellness playing a bigger role in meetings beyond sanitization and social distancing measures. We think attendees will have a greater appreciation for thoughtful touches like nourishing cuisine, fitness programming and mindfulness offerings.

As fear and anxiety levels surge, mental health experts and wellness gurus have been touting the benefits of getting grounded in the present moment and focusing on taking things one day at a time. Enter meditation, the ancient practice of training the mind. Meditation all about bringing the mind into the now and finding peace in the present moment without worrying about the past or being preoccupied with what's going to happen in the future.  

 Meditation can actually create new neural pathways in your brain. Among its many benefits are improved cognition and emotional health, increased insight and resiliency and heightened concentration abilities. And the coolest thing is, there’s no one “right” way to meditate. Anyone can do it, anytime anywhere.

There’s a whole universe of books out there filled with research and how-to’s. Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn and The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh are tried-and-true, longtime best sellers in the space. For a fresh, female perspective, LA-based spiritual coach and wellness expert Kelsey J. Patel’s recently released Burning Bright: Rituals, Reiki, & Self Care to Heal Burnout, Anxiety, & Stress is packed with accessible advice for beginners.

Guided meditations are also a great starting point for beginners. Trained practitioners lead you through breathwork via on-demand apps as well as live streamed classes hosted by meditation and yoga studios. Popular subscription-based apps like Unplug, Calm and Headspace offer guided meditations and tools including breathing exercises, journaling prompts and sound baths. Yoga Nidra is a very unique form of guided meditation that brings you into the state between sleeping and wakefulness. Studies have shown that 20 minutes of yogic sleep can give the body the benefits of three to four hours of sleep! And you get to do it lying down.

That said, you don’t have to be seated and still to meditate. You reap the same rewards on a walking meditation, connecting breath and movement by going slowly and paying attention to each step and breath.