CHICAGO: Air travelers rejoice – Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport now has a yoga room. Close on the heels of three airports in the country – Dallas/ Fort Worth, San Francisco and Burlington Vermont – O’Hare International airport authority has announced launching of “Yoga Room” at this Chicago Airport
The airport yoga room is open on the mezzanine level of the Terminal 3 rotunda at O’Hare. The department also plans to open a yoga room at the city’s Midway International Airport in the near future.
A growing number of airports across the US are opening yoga rooms to cater to stressed-out travelers. Aviation commissioner Rosemarie Andolino calls the yoga room an “oasis for passengers.” The 15-foot by 16-foot room has sustainable bamboo wood flooring, a wall of floor-to-ceiling mirrors and exercise mats. One side of the room has frosted windows to let in natural light. There is a video monitor to play yoga techniques or nature images and audio plays soothing sounds. The room is open daily from 6 am to 10 pm.
The yoga facility at the O’Hare International Airport “provides a space for yoga practice as well as a place to relax or meditate”, an announcement said. This free facility features a sustainable bamboo wood floor, floor to ceiling mirror, exercise mats, frosted windows, video monitor displaying yoga exercise techniques, soothing sounds, plants lining outside windows and a clothes changing facility nearby. “Find your inner peace at our Yoga Room”, a website tagline says.
It is leant that yet another airport in Chicago Midway – is likely to open a similar facility in the near future.
This step on the part of Airport authorizes underline the fact that practicing Yoga has huge therapeutic and relaxing value and many traveling internationally would benefit by using the yoga facilities at the airport. It would be in the fitness of things if other airport in USA as well in other countries pick up the thread and provide similar facilities within their premises.
Welcoming the gesture of Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Burlington airports for availability of yoga for passengers, Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all.
Rajan Zed said that traces of yoga, referred to as “a living fossil” went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization. It was a mental and physical discipline handed down from one guru to next, for everybody to share and benefit from.
According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
No-charge San Francisco International Airport “Yoga Room” is described as “space devoted to relaxation, self-reflection and practicing yoga”. No-charge Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport “Yoga Studio” is fully equipped with yoga mats and urges to “take a minute to relax and stretch between flights”. Burlington International Airport’s yoga space invites travelers to “stretch out and relax before or between flights and enjoy a calm, quiet space” and it has a “family bathroom with a shower”.
According to USA’s National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
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