Life

Get Zen In 60 Seconds

by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Chip Wilson's ridiculous recent comments about see-through LuluLemon yoga pants have overshadowed the initial reason the LuluLemon co-founder was in the spotlight this week. Wilson and his wife Shannon have just launched a quickie meditation program called whil. Dedicated to tiny bursts of meditation that can be done anywhere, each whil exercise takes no longer than 60 seconds.

The point of these bite-size meditative moments is to help busy people (aka all of us) increase focus and reduce stress throughout the day. "You can meditate anywhere — in your office, your car, or even the bathroom (Chip’s favourite)," the whil website says. That last bit might be a little bit TMI? But I dig the premise. I've recently been reading a lot about mindfulness — akin to meditation, mindfulness is more a general, ongoing state of awareness than something that happens in discrete time and space — and small moments of checking in with oneself are one of the fundamental tools of practicing mindfulness.

There are three steps to whil's 60-second meditation concept:

1. Power down — Close your eyes. Take two deep breaths. Visualize a simple dot. Float through.

2. Power up — Get serious. Commit to something. Set a time. Cement it in.

3. Power forward — Take a breath. Open your eyes wide and go. Repeat 2-5 x a day.

The whil website also contains articles, interviews and advice. It's kind of like the Lululemon version of goop — a little over the top, but also charming. Looking at it kind of makes you want to roll your eyes ... and then give everything a try.

Image: whil/Facebook