Relax

Collecting Art, take a look Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app. The benefits of meditation—including enhanced cognition and focus, improved mindset and mood, and decreased anxiety and stress—have been observed for millennia. Many long-term practitioners report an experience of expanded awareness when they meditate, during which the sensation of being alive is both vivid and luminous. Others describe a sense of oneness with their environment, where the separation between their inner and outer worlds is no longer detectable. Even novice practitioners often report a sensation of peacefulness, contentment, and ease while in a meditative state. “Meditation is thousands of years old. It’s a practice that is ancient,” explains Ignacio Saez, a neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who studies human cognition. “One of the reasons why it’s so long lived is because it has these huge b...