Be here now -- while on your way there

Air travel, with its schedules and lines and inherent dangers and hyped-up threats and small seating spaces, is stressful, no matter who you are. Meditation is a way of working with stress. So it makes sense that Delta Airlines has added guided meditations to its in-flight entertainment options.

The app is called "OMG. I Can Meditate" and it's available through the Delta Studio suite of in-flight entertainment via seatback screens or on the WiFi-enable device of your choice. (It's available for nonflight meditation as an app for iPhone or Android also.) It offers a menu of several 10-minute guided meditations, with names like “Blanket of Love,” “Dealing with Anxiety,” and “Relaxing in the Clouds,” narrated by Lynne Goldberg, a meditation coach and co-founder of the app.

The OMG website is a bit breathless in extolling the benefits of meditation -- reduced stress, improved health, better love life, greater success -- although it connects all of the benefits to actual studies. It's a bit light on the news that the benefits accrue to those who have an ongoing practice of meditation. Those 10-minute bites may help for those 10 minutes and a few following, but to see long-term results you need to practice long term.

But ... making even 10 minutes of air travel more pleasant is certainly worth the effort. And if meditation can make being packed into a small space without much space to less objectionable, that might be enough to convince people of its power and to give it a try on a regular basis.

Not only does meditation reduce stress and anxiety, but it improves your physical health and well-being, decreases feelings of depression, improves memory, focus and concentration, makes you less reactive, which helps your relationships, boosts your self awareness and creativity, and to top it off, it makes you happier.

Continue reading: Why Meditate? | OMG. I Can Meditate!

Not only does meditation reduce stress and anxiety, but it improves your physical health and well-being, decreases feelings of depression, improves memory, focus and concentration, makes you less reactive, which helps your relationships, boosts your self awareness and creativity, and to top it off, it makes you happier.

Continue reading: Why Meditate? | OMG. I Can Meditate!