The DEN Meditation
Los Angeles’ DEN Meditation helps find a way to make guided meditation part of your everyday life.
Go here if: you are looking for a space to deepen your understanding of meditative practices.
What is it: A drop-in studio for guided meditation with two Los Angeles locations founded by Tal Rabinowitz, former VP of Comedy Development at NBC (think The Mindy Project and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
What you need to know: Burned out on the entertainment business, Rabinowitz started meditating for all the reasons we now associate with the practice like destressing and finding calm. But she also found that it helped her get to know herself better and brought clarity about decisions going forwards. When Rabinowitz struggled to find the time to fit in her daily practice, she looked for a place that she could go – where she could be held accountable, experience the social benefits of a community, and learn a range of practices. When she couldn’t find the space that she needed, she started The DEN Meditation to be that place for herself and others.
What they offer online and off: During closed times, live and on-demand classes and workshops can be found at DENAnywhere. You can also listen to the DENtalks Podcast in which Rabinowitz hosts conversations with inspiring guests who share their experiences of how they found their way.
Why we think it’s different: Amongst the first of LA’s guided meditation studios, The DEN Meditation is designed to make the practice accessible to everyone and to make it easier to bring into people’s everyday lives. Classes are designed to fit within daily routines, many are just 30 minutes long. The studio feels universal, it's secular in its approach, with guided meditations from all styles and no specific lineage or spiritual practice. The space is intended to feel more like a home, comfortable for whoever walks through the door, as welcoming as a living room. That means brick walls, chenille, natural floors, and fabrics from India, rather than buddhas, lotus flowers, and mandalas. As Rabinowitz has said: “No one should feel they have to be a certain way to show up.”
In their own words: “Whether you want to learn how to meditate, find a home for your meditation practice, or just want to give yourself peace of mind in this fast-paced world, join us at The DEN. Come as you are. Leave feeling better.”
One piece of advice: Meditation can be intimidating, particularly if our idea of it might be 3-day silent retreats in monastic settings. But start small, really small, if you are new to the practice. Like two minutes. Be kind to yourself. Go slowly. Build up to 10 minutes, then 20-minute daily sessions. Make meditation an Atomic Habit – try it at the moment before you wake up and before you check your phone, or when you’re about to get into bed and have just brushed your teeth. Find ways to stack it on another habit, it will make finding the time to meditate easier.
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Additionally, try: Re:Mind / Spirit Rock
Spirit Rock
As the ground shifts beneath our feet, we’re looking more for solace and self-compassion. Enter Marin’s Spirit Rock.
“When one thought ends, right before the next thought begins, there is a tiny gap called ‘now.’ Over time we learn to expand that gap.”
What is it: An open-to-the-public insight meditation center inspired by Buddhist teachings tucked away in West Marin, California.
Go here if: you’re curious about meditation, seeking to practice loving kindness, or looking to connect to something as yet undefined.
Why you’ll love it: There’s nothing intimidating here just warmth and openness to meeting you wherever you are. If like us a 10-minute meditation once a year is all you can manage, you’ll feel ok walking through these doors. You can take the programs at your own pace, from morning sessions through to month-long silent retreats.
What you need to know: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield (co-founder of Spirit Rock) and friends is a great non-committal way to get to know the place and the practice. Join one of Kristin Neff’s sessions on self-compassion.
How to bring this into your life where you are: During stay-at-home times, Spirit Rock operates its programs online and on a donation basis, so you don’t need to be in the San Francisco area to benefit from its teachings.
In their own words: “People come to Spirit Rock for many reasons, but they all amount to essentially the same thing — wanting a more easeful relationship with life. The spaciousness and stillness of Spirit Rock and the caring teachers, staff, and volunteers, create a supportive environment for turning inward and letting go of the struggles that get in the way of experiencing the freedom and joy that are inherent in every moment of life.”
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
If you’ve visited Spirit Rock, or if you have another Meditation Center that you’d recommend, tell us about it on social media or by emailing hello@ifloststarthere.com
Re:Mind
Finding calm in stressed-out London with a new kind of lifestyle studio.
“Find Your Calm.
Drop-in meditation classes in the heart of London.”
Re:Mind speaks to a future where mindfulness studios are as common as your local gym. We all now understand the benefits of exercise, even as we procrastinate to get ourselves to that yoga class, or Soul Cycle session, or just out the door for a half-arsed hike. But we’re now coming to understand the benefits of being in our bodies in a different way, in ways that are slower, gentler and much less sweaty than cardio. Breathwork and meditation once meant retreats or a niche happening-over-there kind of thing. They were definitely for other people. Now we strive to bring these self-care practices into our working weeks and everyday attempts to keep it all together.
Re:Mind helps us negotiate that shift in how we see and experience mindfulness techniques. And it does so by removing some of the woo-woo that might have put us off before—incense sticks, tie-dye, those draped curtains. Founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs and wellness warriors Carla von Anhalt and Yulia Kovaleva, Re:Mind is London’s first drop-in healing studio. Bringing a lustrous charm to self-care practices, Re:Mind takes out the intimidation factor around more alternative wellness approaches.
That all starts with the space. It has been designed to hold you in your practice; to be an instant balm as you walk through the doors. The colour palette is soft, more akin to a high-end boutique. Attention has been paid to best practices for air quality, comfort and serenity. An abundance of greenery (including an air-purifying floor-to-ceiling plant wall) and cascading natural light, nature-derived materials liked the covetable buckwheat filled floor mats, and a mandala of Himalayan Salt Lamps (which are having their moment), create the setting for finding your calm. And if something looks this good, it must be good for us, right?
Actually, right. There’s now study after study to back up the techniques on offer. The intimate studio offers a wide range of equilibrium finding drop-in sessions: There’s yoga, in restorative movement class (Re:Store), mindfulness techniques (Re:Heal), and energizing breathing (Re:Breathe). But there’s also more intriguing sounding offerings such as healing sound baths (Re:Sound), rituals for connection with one another (Re:Connect) and the one we lean towards, bringing in kindness and self-care practice (Re:Caim).
In this serene urban oasis, practitioners are called ‘Calmers’, clients are invited to relax before or after a session with herbal tea, and a small library offers some context (or diversion to those of us who feel less comfortable in new environments). The on-site eco-wellness store is stocked with small businesses who are doing some of the work of sustaining us and our environment, with handmade soaps, flower remedies, chimes and the requisite crystals.
Bringing some Californian lifestyle savvy to the streets of London, this pristine boutique studio for the stressed-out gives both the space and the permission to pause. Here is a place to actually practice some of those concepts that are increasingly talked about as vital tools for navigating modern life; jumping off the pages of a lifestyle magazine or a wellness manual into our real-world. LA would be proud.