GoldLinkVEVO via YouTube

GoldLink is a lover, not a fighterbut dont test him. The DMV rapper dropped the music video for his latest single Meditation this week (Aug. 21) and proved he wasnt afraid to throw down for a girl if need be. The visual centers around a smoke-filled party where GoldLink locks eyes with a beauty across the dance floor. The only problem is, this baddie is whisked away by another guy before the rapper can shoot his shot. GoldLink and the girl later meet up outside the party for a tender moment alone, but things get crazy when the rhymer gets challenged to a fight over her. Jazmine Sullivan handles the soulful hook and theres even a cameo from Ray J in the nearly five-minute clip.

Puttin all my pride and my girls to the side/Cause I still see ya, I still see ya/Smokin all my weed, bend the corners in the streets/I can still see ya, I still see ya, rhymes Link in the first verse.

The KAYTRANADA-produced track is off Links latest project At What Cost, which dropped back in March. The 14-track project, which also features guest appearances from Wale, Steve Lacy and Mya, serves as a love letter to the rappers hometown of D.C. GoldLinks lead single off the album, Crew featuring Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy was certified gold in sales earlier this month and is currently at No. 25 on Billboards R&B and Hip-Hop charts.

Check out the video for Meditation below.

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GoldLink Fights for Love in His New 'Meditation' Video - XXL - XXLMAG.COM

Im a friend and fan of mega-pundit Robert Wright. Were obsessed with the same ridiculously big questions: What is the meaning of life? Does God exist? What is human nature? How constrained are we by our biology? What hope is there for us?In The Moral Animal, Nonzero and The Evolution of God, Wright explores these riddles with such crisp, assured intelligence that its hard figuringout where he goes wrong. But I try to rise to the challenge.

Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment, which just hit the bestseller lists, is Wrights most ambitious book. Guided by evolutionary psychology (his intellectual lodestar) and Buddhism, he diagnoses humanitys ills and prescribes a treatment:

We are prone to excessive emotions, like desire, fear andanger,and to self-deception, which were instilled in us by natural selection. But we can overcome these harmful tendencies through meditation, which helps us gain insight into and control over ourselves. As Wright says in a Wall Street Journal essay, The Meditation Cure, meditation turns out to be one of the best ways to deal with the anxieties and appetites bequeathed to us by our evolutionary history.

He suggests that meditation might help us achieve the state of supreme serenity and insight known as enlightenment. And if enough of us meditate, we might overcome the tribalism that causes war and other harmful behaviors. I think the salvation of the world can be secured via the cultivation of calm, clear minds and the wisdom they allow, Wright declares. Italics added.

Wright and I just batted this thesis around on Bloggingheads.tv, his online discussion platform. Below are a few concerns I raised in our dialogue, some of which I have mentioned in previous posts (see Further Reading).

*Meditation isnt that effective. A 2014 review by theJohns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Centerexamines 17,801 papers on meditations psychotherapeutic benefits and found 41 relatively high-quality studies involving 2,993 subjects. The review concludes that meditation programs reduce multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress. But benefits are low to moderate, and there is no evidence that meditation programs were superior to any specific therapies they were compared with, including exercise, muscle relaxation and cognitive-behavioral therapy.

*Meditation is morally neutral. Wright argues that meditation makes you nicer. But you can meditate to be a more effective corporate raider. Throughout history, warriors have meditated or prayed before battle so they can fight more effectively. Today,many U.S. soldiers are taught mindfulness meditation, which presumably will help them feel better about carrying out violent U.S. policies. Moreover, a disturbing number of meditation teachers have behaved more like sociopaths than saints.

*Enlightenment is a bad idea. Also called liberation, awakening or nirvana, enlightenment is a state in which you see through the illusory nature of things, and you feel really, really good. Wright treats the concept with too much credulity. People are so desperate for enlightenment that they become vulnerable to abuse by unscrupulous meditation teachers. Even when viewed as an unattainable ideal, the concept of enlightenment does more harm than goodand should be abandoned.

*We don't need to meditate to achieve world peace. Wright argues that mindfulness can bring about a Metacognitive Revolution that helps us overcome our violent tribal tendencies, which often culminate in war. But to end war, we dont need to meditate and recognize the formlessness of things. We need to recognize that war is stupid and wrong and take steps to eradicate it. I fear that when intellectuals call for a revolution that can bring about world peace, they make itseem even more unattainable.

*Save us from our saviors. The idea that humanity is fundamentally flawed and needs saving--whether by Buddha, Moses, Christ, Mohammed, Marx or L. Ron Hubbard--has done more harm than good. We should reject once and for all the idea that life is a problem for which there is a single, true solution.

Thats enough nits. Let me emphasize that I enjoyed Why Buddhism Is True, even when Idisagreed with it. I especially likeWright'sinterweaving ofphilosophical rumination onBuddhistdoctrines such as emptiness withvivid descriptions of his own meditativeexperiences. I'm guessing hisbookwill become the go-to explicationof Buddhism formodern western seekers, just as The Moral Animal remains the go-to explication ofevolutionary psychology. Bob, because of his mindfulness practice, doesnt care about suchworldly things any more, but I hope his book remains on the bestseller lists for a long time to come.

Further Reading:

Meta-Meditation: A Skeptic Meditates on Meditation

Why I Don't Dig Buddhism.

Does Evolution Have a "Higher Purpose"?

Research on TM and Other Forms of Meditation Stinks.

Do All Cults, Like All Psychotherapies, Exploit the Placebo Effect?

Cybertherapy, placebos and the dodo effect: Why psychotherapies never get better.

What Should We Do With Our Visions of Heaven and Hell?

My Modest Proposal for Solving the Meaning of Life Problemand Reducing Global Conflict.

Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment.

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Can Buddhism Save Us? - Scientific American (blog)

Two-time Grammy winner LeAnn Rimes opened up about meditation, explaining that she began her "metta" practice in order to improve her relationship with herself and with her blended family from her marriage to husband Eddie Cibrian.

Im a stepmom with two boys that are 10 and 14 and the stepfamily environment can be rocky at times, Rimes told ABCs Dan Harris during an interview for his podcast 10% Happier. So to try to cultivate love in that situation, honestly, thats what brought me to metta, and when I discovered it I was like, 'OK, Im starting to put all of these puzzle pieces together for myself.'

The piece of metta where it was directing it towards yourself was probably one of the hardest pieces for me, Rimes said. Im my hardest, worst critic."

The 34-year-old singer said she now practices meditation for 45 minutes to an hour on a regular basis and has a meditation room in her home.

I used to not be able to sit still, she said. I had separation anxiety, big time. I used to not be able to sit by myself at all. I just didn't want to be alone, and now I crave that time every day. I have to have that peace for myself.

Subscribe and listen to the "10% Happier" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, TuneIn, on ABC Radio podcasts and under the "Listen" tab on the ABC News app.

Rimes, whose chart-topping hits include Cant Fight the Moonlight and How Do I Live, has been making a name for herself and her powerful voice since she was a child. She had her first big hit at age 13 and the following year, she became the youngest Grammy recipient ever.

The artist's career has since expanded to writing books, including novels, and acting. Shes appeared in multiple TV series and movies, including the new film, "Logan Lucky," which is out in theaters now. In November, she will perform at the Live in the Vineyard music festival.

The singer has also been the subject of tabloid scrutiny, and in the past, she has owned up to mistakes she said she made in breaking up two marriages, including her own, to be with Cibrian.

I've gone through my whole life in the public eye, Rimes told Harris. And so this [meditation] feels like a piece of me. You know, I get to have those moments for myself.

Rimes said she started exploring meditation after she noticed she would feel incredibly drained after a show or overwhelmed when fans would share how her music had impacted their lives.

I was experiencing so much energy coming back at me and I was coming off [stage] incredibly drained and I didn't understand what was going on, Rimes said. Im just a really empathic, very sensitive person [and] my brain would not shut down.

So a few years ago, she said she started working with an energy healer, a type of holistic therapist whose goal is to help balance the patients energy flow to reduce stress and anxiety.

Rimes said the energy healer introduced her to visualization meditation and she later started practicing metta. She now documents her soul-searching journey on her new blog, Soul of EverLe, in which she talks openly about forgiveness, loving ones self and meditation.

[Meditation] has changed my relationships, the way I am. I'm less reactive, Rimes said. My whole outlook on life has changed.

Subscribe and listen to the "10% Happier" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, TuneIn, on ABC Radio podcasts and under the "Listen" tab on the ABC News app.

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LeAnn Rimes opens up about how meditation changed her 'whole outlook on life' - ABC News

Mass meditation specialists The Big Quiet are returning to NYC for theirlargest event yet at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, August 20. Which is good, because you won't find suchhyper-neurotic and simultaneously wellness-obsessed people anywhere else. Maybe in L.A., but they don't need the zenas much as we do; we've had a verystressfulsummer.

First timers, fret not. This is not anuncomfortable sit-in-silence marathon. In fact, this event is all about comfort. You get 30 minutes before and after the official ceremony to snap pics and enjoy this novel way of seeing one of the world's most famous venues. There will be an active warm-up lead by Outdoor Voices (the brand is also giving out swag bags to court side seats and discount codes to all).

Next, certified Sound Therapy Practitioner Sara Auster will orchestratea sound bath (a meditative listening exercise), by leading a number of musicians on bowls and gongs. The meditation itself only lasts 20 minutes. Afterwards, you can enjoy a varietyof acoustic performances on the court and a $15 Sweetgreen app-credit to help you stayon the health train post-event.

Tickets are $40. Cop them here.

More here:

Head to a massive meditation at Madison Square Garden this month - Time Out New York (blog)

1/6

Everyone has their own fitness personality: Some people cant get enough of SoulCycle, while others seetapping it back to a Katy Perry song astheir idea of hell. Some are die-hard downward doggers, while others think yoga class is anhour-long nap. Workouts are not one-size-fits-alland, as it turns out, neither are meditation practices.

Saying you cant meditate is like going to the gym once, not [seeing results]immediately, and deciding working out isnt for you, says Lodro Rinzler, Chief Spiritual Officer of New York CitysMNDFL. Your exerciseoptions arent limited to the treadmill and elliptical, but it might take some trial and error before you find the best style for you.

There are more ways to meditate than there are to make an egg.

Suze Yalof Schwartz, founder of the Los Angeles-based meditation studio Unplug, is calling BS on anyone who claimstheyre too social, too talkative, or too distracted to be alone with their thoughts. If you can breathe, you can meditate, she insists. Meditation is something that most people dont realize theyre doing, all the time. (Like, maybe, during your manicure.)

Every meditation practice is based onfour main steps: focus, let go, think, repeat. But within this template, there are a seemingly endless number of methodsthat you can use to get your Zen on. There are more ways to meditate than there are to make an egg, Yalof Schwartz says, quoting a friend. Its kind of like a food court: Some days Im interested in Chinese [cuisine], other days Im interested in Italianor Japanese. I want to try it all, and it keeps me interested.

To get you started, Yalof Schwartz breaks down the ideal meditation to try, according to your personality.

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People with open personalities enjoy new experiences, which means theyre probably the first ones to jump at the chance to try a virtual reality spin class or do sun salutations with farm animals.

For people who are really open, I think its fun to try a guided imagery class where you look at your future self or your ideal life, or meet your inner child, says Yalof Schwartz. An open persons insightful, imaginative vibes make them the perfect candidate for visualization, mainly because you never know what theyll come up with.

3/6

Conscientious personalities arethe ones who always remember to bring a water bottle to spin class(and arrive 10 minutes early). I think a mantra is a great way for them to start, because they can be kind of predictable and disciplined, says Yalof Schwartz.

Her personal favorite mantras to use areah when you inhale and hum when you exhale, or thinking let (inhale) go (exhale).

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You can spot your extroverted friends from across the roomtheyre theones chatting it up in the juice bar after a workout class. Theyre also most often the people who claim to be unable to meditate because they get their energy from interacting with others. For someone whosmore extroverted, I think breathwork is a fun meditation to do, says Yalof Schwartz. [You practice]a more energized breath, and you feel like its much more active. She notes they also usually play music during these classes (although dance parties are not encouraged).

While its still technically a solo activity, Yalof Schwartz refers to breathworkas being very social with yourself. You spend the session breathing heavily and listening to music, so by the time the practice is over, youre exhaustedto the point where theres nothing you can do but just be.

5/6

Friendly, cooperative, and compassionate, agreeable people arethe ones willing to move their mats over to make room for you on the floor. I think mindfulness would be great for them, specifically a type called loving kindness, which is a practice where you show love to yourself and others, says Yalof Schwartz.

Heres how it works: First, you silently ask yourself questions like, May I be happy? May I be well? Then you think about another person and ask about their wellness and happiness. Agreeable people tend to be kind and sympathetic, so considering others duringtheir practice may help themfocusas long as they dont forget to think about themselves, too.

6/6

People who score highon the neuroticism scale may not be the most open to meditationbut they couldalso have the most to gain from it. Yalof Schwartz recommends a practice called tapping, which she describes as hypnosis without closing your eyes and acupuncture without the needles.

You tap these points [on your face and body], and what youre doing is youre changing your neuro path, she says. As you make contact, you replace negative thoughts or behaviors with positive ones. Yalof Schwartz says she once used tapping to stop eating sugary carbohydrates for eight days.Hows that for results?

Once youve found the meditation style you vibe with, find out how mastering it can help you succeed at work. Or take your mindfulness on the road with this walking meditation.

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What's the best meditation style for your personality type? - Well+Good

Tay (L) and Val (R) Steve Korn

What's your philosophy on doing meditation and not just stopping after two weeks/days/minutes of trying?

Tay: Let me put it this way: In our 15 to 20 years of meditating experience, we realize that it is not about whether your eyes are closed. It is not about whether you are sitting in the lotus position. It is not about whether you om or not. It is not about whether you say a mantra or what clothes you wear. It is really about how can I use this tool that helps me focus and allows me to be aware of my own behaviors and thoughts and be aware of what other people are doing in relation to who I am in this world. Everything else can actually be stripped away.

Val: This isn't the first time meditation has been modernized. And what we're doing is not that different. We are living in cities, we're hyper connected, more or less global citizens. So how can we take that wisdom and make it applicable to our day-to-day lives?

You work with so many people with different kinds of jobs. Who seems the most stressed out and in need of your services?

Val: If you really must put it on a scale, I think that people who are most stressed out are the ones who are out of alignment.

What do you mean out of alignment?

Val: There are people who actually love accounting! And there are people who are doing it because it's a good job that pays well. There are people who actually love being nurses or paramedics and saving lives, even though it's a super high-stress environment. But it fills them up, right? So if you're out of alignment, you're not being authentic to yourselfthat's when stress happens. We are all perpetually on auto-correct mode. Feeling stress is your body telling you to auto-correct your course.

Where do you go to get work done and focus?

Tay: Amandine Bakeshop. Have you been? I like the way they curate the furniture.

Val: On my higher stress days, I actually go to Stumptown. They play the hardcore rock music, and it somehow recalibrates me back.

Tay: For us, this is what meditation is about. You can never find a purely quiet space in the city. And because you live in a city, there is no reason you cannot meditate to the city and reach peace even when it is super noisy. So that is what true mediation means to us.

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Person of Interest: Tay and Val, Meditation Guides Who Say "No Mantra Needed" - TheStranger.com

New meditation app features leading teachers and offers unique approach to mindfulness rooted in disrupting and transforming our culture and our world.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) August 10, 2017

Brooklyn, NY: Guided by a who's who of meditation teachers on the forefront of Buddhism and social change - Greg Snyder (co-founder and head teacher of the Brooklyn Zen Center), Rev. angel Kyodo williams, and Lama Rod Owens (co-authors of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation), the book that has taken the Buddhist world and Black Lives Matter movement by storm) - Awaken Meditation has launched a prototype of an iPhone app, available for download on the iOS store. The company, started by entrepreneur Ravi Mishra and artist Susan Stainman (both meditation teachers as well), is in the midst of a very successful Kickstarter campaign, offering discounted memberships to raise funds for a fully featured app for both iOS and Android.

In a time when politics is at a fevered pitch and anger is rampant, Awaken offers a surprising form of resistance: Meditation, explains Ravi Mishra. Not meditation in the way pop culture has appropriated it - as a form of escapism and stress relief - but actual mindfulness practice that brings us more completely into the moments of our lives: the fire and chaos, the peace and tranquility, and everything in between.

Awaken teaches meditation through a series of audio-guided practices, which draw from classic mindfulness philosophy and focus on contemplating real life: Work, relationships, habits, and especially culture and politics - with a focus on unearthing our inner wisdom and applying it to our lives. The app features a social media approach to mindfulness practice, ending each session with a journal prompt and a newsfeed of responses. Recent meditations have examined the following, just to name a few:

There are a lot of meditation apps out there - and none of them are talking about culture and politics, about undoing racism and sexism, and about the impact that all these systems have on our minds and hearts. "Awaken offers a method of meditation that examines our whole lives in the context of our society and encourages courageous vulnerability and openness," says co-founder, Mishra.

The Kickstarter offers discounted monthly membership to the app, pledging to transition to a pay-what-you-can system when possible. There are also opportunities to engage Awaken teachers in coaching and private conversations about meditation practice. Awaken is unique in its organizational structure and approach: instead of raising venture capital and therefore needing to prioritize growth and profit, the company is incorporating as a worker owned cooperative dedicated to using mindfulness to transform our lives, culture, and world, with all profits to be invested in this mission.

About the company: Awaken is a new kind of meditation app that combines mindfulness practice, contemplation, and journaling. The approach applies Buddhist philosophy to our entire lives and employs a social networking approach to encourage community and conversation. You can learn more about all of them on their website.

About the Founders:Ravi Mishra is launching his second company after his first was acquired in 2012. With a deep background in tech and software and decade-long passion for meditation and Buddhism, he's excited to bring his various fields of expertise together with Awaken. While lamenting the recent US election and current state of politics, he remains hopeful that our collective future is bright and dreams about bridging the gap between social systems and mindfulness practice.

Susan Stainman is a Brooklyn based visual artist. A meditation practitioner since 2007, she teaches practices at the intersection between creativity and mindfulness. Having met Ravi at a year-long meditation teacher training at the Interdependence Project in New York City, Awaken is the extension of their friendship and interest in extending meditation and wisdom teachings to a wider audience. She is excited to help people access their inner wisdom to live more authentically and affect change in our communities and world.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/08/prweb14591556.htm

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Introducing Awaken, a Totally New Kind of Meditation App - Benzinga

Photo: Athleta

If you've been curious about mindfulness, this is your chance to find out what it's all about. From August 9th through August 13th, Athleta will hold a free 30-minute meditation session at each of its 133 locations across the country.

The chain will offer "Permission to Pause" meditation sessions designed by Unplug Meditation, which will focus on the basics of how to incorporate mindfulness all day long, not just when sitting down to meditate. Participants will learn techniques to incorporate mindfulness into everyday life, including a 16-second meditation technique. (Here's a technique that will help you clear your mind.) The class will cater to all levels of experience, says Andra Mallard, chief marketing officer at Athleta.

"You can be the biggest skeptic in the world, the earliest beginner, or you could be a devoteethere's going to be something for you here," Mallard says.

Athleta is holding the events to promote its new Restore collection, which is made with soft, sustainable fabrics meant to be conducive to meditation and relaxation. The events are part of Athleta's "Permission to Pause" campaign, which is all about allowing yourself to prioritize self-care. (Here's what happened when one writer prioritized self-care for one week.)

The events will kick off on August 9th and run through August 13th. Visit the "store classes and events" calendar on the company's store locator to find a session near you.

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Athleta Will Hold Free Meditation Sessions at Every Store This Week - Shape Magazine

Dolores Tersigni was hoping she would be taking a long-overdue vacation after leaving Netflix earlier this year instead, she was spending a lot of time talking to the team over at meditation app Headspace.

Now shes landed a job there as the chief people officer, starting full-time this week. The conversations actually led to a little bit of an involvement throughout the year, but now she will be working to craft the companys culture and help recruit new talent to the meditation app. Tersigni is the second big executive hire in the past month and a half or so, with the company bringing on a new chief business officer in June.

A bunch of people in my life were talking about Headspace, Tersigni said. People were just telling me to use the product because Im very much into mindfulness and yoga and meditation and had even begun trying to integrate it at Netflix. On another front, some people that I knew from a business perspective were really just interested in the business model. I had friends that knew some of the investors first or second hand and Headspace came up 4 or 5 times in 2 weeks. I kept thinking, I wonder why this company keeps coming up, and that led me to think more about what the company culture would be like.

Tersigni was previously the VP of Talent at Netflix, where she spent four years working on building up a team on the content side. Now, Netflixs original content efforts have exploded into a multi-billion dollar effort revving up Netflixs growth engine as it looks to expand internationally.

They havent really had anyone in my role before, Tersigni said. Trying to define what does that mean, how do you bring the culture to life, how does everyone in the company speak the same language, thats going to be the big challenge. How do you recruit and retain talent against those values and behaviors.

The role comes with plenty of unique challenges many of which arent actually measurable. The role will be judged in terms of hiring and retention, but a lot of it will be touchy-feely (to borrow the phrase for a class at a business school) and ensuring that the team is able to grow while maintaining its culture. That means sending out surveys, getting feedback and then trying to gauge whether or not people are actually enjoying their time at the company.

The latter of that is critical in terms of retaining talent. And it might be a little more difficult given that Headspace just went through a small round of layoffs.The company raised an additional $37 million earlier this year to fuel expansion. It may be in a better shape to continue to attract new talent and hold onto its existing employees. But for a meditation app, building that culture of mindfulnessthat the app is literally built around may be more of a challenge than expected.

We have a lot of employees and were seeing increased complexity in the business, Tersigni said. In any startup in the initial phases, its all hands on deck and everyone does everything. As you start to mature, it gets more complex, and you create more functions, your roles are more and more defined. Youre less of a generalist and become more of a specialist. At that point, you have to start defining what does [success] mean. Right now is the time in that organization, people start asking what does my career progression look like here. Really creating a framework and road map, how theyre able to define success, thats gonna be my first 30-60 days will be mapping that out so people have a better understanding.

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Meditation app Headspace brings on former Netflixer Dolores ... - TechCrunch

by Georgina Safe

Meditation is the new yoga.With benefits including increased clarity, improved productivity, better sleep and less stress, itis being embraced by everyone from frazzled executives to anxious creatives. But with so many types of practice on offer from traditional Vediccentres to the designer studios popping up faster than you can say om which one is right for you?

Life & Leisure road-tests a few.

I turn up to my first meditation session at The Broad Place in Paddington, Sydney, with three pieces of fruit, six flowers and an open mind. Co-founders Jacqui Lewis and Aaron Russell teach "integrative meditation", a twist on Vedic meditation with a few extra bells and whistles for the modern world.

In three sessions over three days, Lewis teaches me how to meditate with a mantra, beginning with a ceremony of gratitude in which she makes an offering of the fruit and flowers and sings in Sanskrit, acknowledging the wisdom of ancient teachers.

After that, it's down to business: I'm assigned a personal mantra and my group engages in a 20-minute meditation. I find it difficult to let go of my outside thoughts, which is doubly disconcerting given Lewis works from an incredibly tranquil designer studio space calibrated for extreme relaxation. But that night I sleep better than I have in years, and in the second session I find it easier to let my mind drift off.

In the third session I inexplicably break down into a huge sobbing fit in front of my fellow participants a chief executive, a midwife and a dancer with one of Australia's pre-eminent contemporary companies. It's beyond embarrassing, but Lewis tells me it's perfectly normal; the meditation is bringing old and useless negative emotions to the surface and letting them go.

I really do feel better and lighter afterwards, which is why after the course I continue to meditate for 20 minutes once a day (Lewis recommends twice daily, but that's a little too much for me). It might be my imagination, but it feels easier to write for work, too.

The Broad Place also offers courses in Melbourne and retreats and workshops in Byron Bay, India, London and Los Angeles.

A fashion designer friend recommends the Tibetan singing bowls meditationat City Fringe, so I'm initially disappointed to discover there's been a bookings glitch and I've actually signed up for "How to meditate with noise" instead. But how glorious the noise is.

The session has been arranged because there'sa flute and harp recital scheduled for the performance venue downstairs, and as the music flows we learn a simple three-minute meditation designed to help us relax in noisy or busy situations. It's easy and effective, in a welcoming space filled with comfy couches, fresh flowers and a Himalayan salt lampglowing softly in the semi-darkness.

The centre teaches in the Brahma Kumaris tradition, a religious movement from India in which women play a prominent role.

BrahmaKumarisalso offers meditation in Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmania, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra, See meditationspace.com.au

The best thing about the Headspaceis the voice of Andy Puddicombe. His mellifluous British accent think the David Attenborough of the meditation world is enough to transport me to serenity, even without pressing play on one of his hundreds of bite-sized app sessions on everything from managing stress to better sleep.

The second-best thing about Headspace is it's a mobileapp, rather than a place, so you can carry it around in your pocket or handbag. It also prompts you to set a daily reminder to meditate at a chosen time.

I found this a little guilt-inducing on days I was too busy to fit it in, but there's good reason Headspace is the world's most popular mediation app. It's particularly useful to block out annoying background noise and conversations in busy places.

Think of BodyMindLife as the designer gym of meditation and wellness. It offers more than 300 classes each week at four chic, minimalistlocations across Sydney, including meditation, yoga, Pilates, massage, reiki, kinesiology, and hot and cold and oxygen therapies.

I'm a bit of a princess when it comes to gyms. Dated decor and dirty carpets aren'tgoing to cut it. So I love the sleek surrounds, the change rooms equipped with organic products, hair dryers and straighteners, and the Yogi Lounge with free Wi-Fi and herbal tea. As for the meditation, it's a 30-minute guided session in a warm and dark room in which the only glow is the by now ubiquitous Himalayan salt lamp.

The beauty of BodyMindLife is the way it cater to wellness junkies rather than gym junkies. Sign up and you can access all the yoga, Pilates and mediation your heart desires, minus paying for spin, weights and workout classes you'll never use, if they're not your thing.

BodyMindLife has studios in the Sydney suburbs of Bondi Beach, Potts Point, Redfern and Surry Hills.

This is the thinking person's meditation centre. The boutique psychology and mindfulness studioprovides daily meditation and yoga classes upstairs, while downstairs professional psychologists and holistic practitioners offer one-on-one consultations.

I try the breath-based, centredmeditation, which involves focusing on your breath above all else, which I find surprisingly difficult. Another, sound-based mediation seems to be much easier perhaps because I've already had some practice but what I really want to come back to try are the nap classes.

Nap Time is a class for busy and tired workers to experience a guided relaxation meditation and sneak in some shut-eye in the middle of the day. If you are cool with essentially paying to take a siesta, the Indigo Project claims the nap classes boost productivity and refresh the mind.

The Indigo Project is in Surry Hills, Sydney.

The beauty of meditating at this Buddhist temple is the way its teachers dispense practical advice for daily life. From how to deal with getting grumpy in a queue to surviving a marriage break-up, Buddhist nun Kelsang Monlam is full of handy suggestions for solving real-life problems.

The Surry Hills centre is part of the International Temples Project, a charitable organisation founded by Tibetan Buddhist Geshe Kelsang Gyatso with the vision of creating temples dedicated to world peace in every major city in the world.

My Saturday morning class involves ateaching on how to put yourself in others' shoes, two guided meditations and a prayer for world peace. It's a long class almost 90 minutes but I emerge feeling refreshed. An added bonus is meeting several interesting women over tea and biscuits in the foyer before the class.

If you can't get to Surry Hills, the centre holds 13 classes in suburbs throughout Sydney every week. There are also Kadampa meditation centres around the world and in most Australian state capitals. See kadampa.org.

More:

Feeling frazzled? Take your pick from these 6 meditation studios - The Australian Financial Review