Places to Meditate

Here are 15 places we came up with where we can try for a 10-20 minute meditation:

1. An airport bench or a patch of carpet. - Some airports, like Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans, have lounge chairs. Prop yourself comfortable with a scarf or jacket and breathe.
2. Outside. - A friend built me a plywood platform that I move around the yard.
3. Standing, anywhere. - Try a deck, a patch of lawn or a different room in your home. Feel the ground beneath your feet in Tadasana, Mountain pose.
4. Highway rest areas. - Seek a flat rock or a picnic table.
5. On the bed of a pick-up truck. - Parked, please!
6. In the quiet car of a train.
7. Beside your pet’s bed while he or she is resting. - Allow the animal's breath to guide your own.
8. Beside a sleeping baby.
9. With someone who does not normally meditate. - Sit beside them on their sofa and be with them.
10. Under a desk. - No one needs to know you’re there.
11. At a shopping mall. - Tip: The quietest benches are near the stairs.
12. By the a pond, lake, ocean, bay or river, on a bench or dock. - Smell the water!
13. By a fountain in a city.
14. At a Botanical Garden.
15. At the bus stop. - Cultivate a feeling of centering amidst city schedules, bustle and noise.

The word "meditate" derives from the word "measure." Even just a few minutes of any form of meditation can be a tool for us to apply a different assessment to our lives—one based on fully inhabiting the present moment, instead of leaving from a moment or rushing toward another.