Dr. John Denninger, a psychiatrist and director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, sees both pros and cons to mobile apps and gadgets. "If [high-tech devices] get people who wouldn't even think about doing this to do some breathing exercises for even a minute a day, then that's progress," says Denninger, who's investigating the medical benefits of stress-reduction techniques like yoga or meditation. But "one thing I worry about with devices is they could just be a distraction."The instructions say to "meet at the yurt," most definitely the first time I've been told that. It's another line in the description that really makes my heart race, though: "Please note there is no cell phone reception at Green Gulch."I've signed up for an all-day meditation retreat through the San Francisco Zen Center at the Green Gulch Farm near Muir Beach, a 45-minute drive north of the city. I've come to the sunnier side of the Golden Gate Bridge many times, but today I'm trying something new: Buddhist meditation. In a yurt. In this case, it's a round, red structure surrounded by a faded wooden deck and fragrant bay laurel trees.
I'm greeted at said yurt by Chris Fortin, a licensed psychotherapist and spiritual counselor who's also the Zen priest and teacher leading today's meditations, "I'm as addicted as anybody to my phone," Fortin tells me, "But these cell phones are fairly new devices, I just feel like there's a deep need in the world right now, where people can come together where it's safe, where we can speak about what's true beyond sound bites."We're just 15 women sitting silently in a circle — some on the floor, some in chairs — with our eyes closed and hands clasped against our chests for zazen (sitting meditation), Sometimes we walk very slowly and deliberately through the woods and gardens surrounding the yurt, That's iphone screen protector glass warranty kinhin meditation, The silence is broken only by the occasional bird call and the plunking of seeds as they fall from the trees..
"The world is pretty crazy," Fortin tells me. "We need all the help we can get."I agree. We do need all the help we can get, which is why I'm ready to climb into the Somadome again. I'm feeling so calm, I barely even notice the photographer snapping shots of my feet or the tech workers running on treadmills outside the room. I'm in a Somadome at the health and wellness center in Adobe's headquarters in San Jose, California. The software maker has owned one of the pods since January 2016 and plans to buy a second for its San Francisco offices.
Employees can iphone screen protector glass warranty sign up for free sessions throughout the day or just show up to see if the Somadome is available, It rarely is, "We have a steady 85 percent booking [rate] on it," says Kris Herrera, Adobe's global site operations strategy manager, "When we put it in, our target was 35 percent, It's been so well received."The Somadome uses sound, color and energy therapies to help relieve stress — often brought on by too much tech, In light therapy, violet "contributes to spiritual insights" and boosts immunity..
Adobe's not the only high-tech company that sees the benefits of meditation. Others include Google, Facebook and Apple, whose co-founder Steve Jobs famously embraced Zen meditation and spent time at an Indian ashram. (So did Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.) Google launched a "Search Inside Yourself" course to help employees learn mindfulness meditation, and now runs the group as a nonprofit, the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, to teach techniques to individuals and other companies. Mindfulness is also gaining popularity in traditional medicine and becoming a component of fitness centers. Somadome is working with Equinox to bring the dome to the high-end fitness club, and Planet Fitness plans to test out the machine. The Four Seasons in Westlake, California, has one installed in its California Health & Longevity wellness facility, which its clinical psychologists can recommend it as part of patient therapy. Right now, there are 20 Somadomes in the world.