The P.TV recently went deep into the pits of Sydney CBD for a meditation sesh hosted by Centred Meditation, the Aussie ‘world first’ meditation studio made for suits and other urban workers – and whose owner reckons is more beneficial than a lunchtime gym class.
Greeted with cinnamon tea, “business-class” armchairs, and throw-blankets, the PEZ crew quickly settled before co-founder Kevin Jankelowitz started his 30-minute guided meditation.
Team Pez: Urban Professionales
…And as we try and hold onto that feeling zen, here’s some more about Centred Meditation studio – why it’s the first of its kind; how it’s making meditation more accessible during your 9 to 5 grind; and why you should consider popping in during your lunch break or as an alternative to you gym session-
PEDESTRIAN.TV: Why is your meditation studio a ‘world first’?
Kevin: Nothing that we’re doing here is anything ‘new’, but it’s a world first in the sense that we’re a guided meditation drop-in studio in the heart of the CBD that’s secular, contemporary and targeted towards the urban professional. There are definitely places you can go to meditate like local buddhist centres, and people teaching courses but there’s nowhere you can just drop-in for a class and then just leave right afterwards. And similarly, there’s no place that you could go in that realm that’s of a contemporary nature.
Yeah, we noticed that you didn’t have all of us sitting on the ground, or lying flat on our backs…
Armchairs are another aspect of [the design]. The ideal for our clients is not sitting on the floor cross-legged. You’ll be on the ground for two minutes before you start to feel uncomfortable, get back pain or your legs feel numb. And you probably don’t want to put your $2000 suit on the floor anyway. If you’re wearing a pencil skirt, it’s not so dignified [to sit on the floor].
For people wanting to do something ‘healthy’ during their lunch break, why should they choose meditation over say, a workout at the gym?
Exercise and living a balanced lifestyle are obviously very important, but what we’d say is that meditation is a ‘workout’ for your mind as well as your body. It has two big benefits:
(1) Physiologically, meditating activates our relaxation responses, lowers our blood pressure and resting heart rate, improves our digestion, and boosts our immune systems.
(2) Purely mental benefits include clarity of mind, increased focus, increased ability to multi-task, increased general productivity and creativity. Your perception of the world also seems to alter, you seem to be able to put things into perspective a bit more, which helps when you go back to work.
A lot of people think that after meditating they’ll be sleepy when they get back to work, but in fact, it’s the opposite.
You run a few sessions throughout the day (before work, lunch time and after work), which do you find is the most popular?
At the moment, our most popular classes are our lunchtime classes. But, we find that our clients come in at different times and get slightly different benefits. Those that are coming in in the morning use it as an opportunity to get focused for the day – and to set themselves up for a happy, productive day at work.
Those that come in at lunch, use it as a re-boost; they’re starting to feel the lunchtime slump and they come in. And the end of the day, it’s the wind-down – taking everything that’s happened during the day and when you leave, whatever’s happened isn’t such a big deal anymore. We also run self-guided meditation everyday at 3pm.
Centred Meditation is located at Level 10, 66 Hunter Street, Sydney. For more information, visit their website or give them call: (02) 8006 1403 .
Lead image via Oprah.com.
