Air travel can be stressful, boring, anxiety-producing. Once in flight, there’s no way to escape – the surrounding confines of a packed aircraft and its poorly circulated air, the tension that comes with making a connection, the inevitable lost baggage syndrome. Except, perhaps, in your mind. Enter Headspace Take10 for the air, a new meditation audio offering onboard Virgin Atlantic flights.
Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, is the soothing voice and meditation guru behind Headspace, an audio guided meditation that one can listen to on any Ipod, Smartphone, etc. In their continued effort to bring meditation to the masses, Puddicombe and his team devised the Headspace 10-minute guided meditation for the entire Virgin Atlantic fleet (they are also talking to Jet Blue about a similar partnership), which is hopefully helping a lot of airline passengers better deal with the stresses of modern air travel.
Recent research has been highlighting the positive effects of meditation, such as reduced anger and stress, added creativity, greater concentration and increased attention span. A recent article in Yale Scientific magazine writes, “Meditation does not only have emotional benefits. A growing body of evidence suggests that mindfulness training can help anxiety, chronic pain, addictions, and other disorders.”
You may not have plans to fly Virgin, or any airline, in the near future. But you can still download the Headspace app (“On-the-Go”) in the meantime, follow Puddicombe’s prompts, and you’ll find yourself breathing easier – on the ground or in the sky.
