Or it might mean hitting your internal pause button rather than losing it with your kids, Schwartz said. That might mean wishing well to the crazy driver next you on the 405. I’m teaching people a technique to incorporate into their lives.” When your brain starts racing, you go back. “When you breathe, you anchor to the present moment. “What we’re teaching is technique,” Schwartz said. “I’m making the place I wanted to go,” she said. Schwartz sought out top teachers, people she believed could combine the science and the soul of meditation. Schwartz wanted something else, “like a ‘Good Morning America’ segment with takeaways.”Īnd, as she put it, she found her new destiny: to create that place. Some seemed too medical, others too “hippie dippy” for her.

When she began going to meditation classes, she said, they seemed expensive, and they also required weeks of commitment to classes that lasted two hours or more.

In her case, her mother-in-law suggested she give it a try as a way to cope with her busy life as a fashion editor and mother of three. “Most people come to meditation because they need it,” Schwartz, who calls herself a spiritual entrepreneur, said one morning before a meditation. People are likely to find some styles that suit them and others that don’t, said teacher Lauren Eckstrom. Teachers said they assume at least some of the people are beginners, and they always leave time for questions. Unplug has 32 sessions, 30 or 45 minutes long, a week in various types of meditation, including breath awareness, “loving kindness” and “body scan.” People can sign up online or just show up. I’m not going to hold a pose as long alone as when I’m in a class and see everyone else doing it,” she said. But Natalie Bell, another unplug teacher, said many people like the “sense of community when they meditate in a shared space.”Īnd it’s motivating, said teacher Stefanie Goldstein. “Mindfulness is a way to pay attention,” said Kelly Barron, one of the teachers at unplug.Ĭertainly it’s possible to meditate on your own, at home.

Unplug meditation book