san francisco airport yoga room

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By: Anurag Lohia
Anurag Lohia is the founder and chief promoter of Divine Wellness, the latest unique initiative of the Lohia Group, a well-known business conglomerate headquartered in North India with interests in ...
Edited date: February 9, 2022Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

It’s been all over the news lately that San Francisco International Airport opened the first of its kind official airport Yoga Room. Terminal 2, SFO’s state of the art new terminal, already aims to be a healthy and convenient stop for travelers by offering healthy, upscale food choices from local restaurants and vendors. Terminal 2 also has free wireless internet, convenient cell phone docking stations, and other high-tech amenities, and is environmentally LEED-certified. The new Yoga Room is the latest amenity to be announced. And it’s already getting a lot of attention from yoga media, not to mention foot traffic from airport passengers in this busy international hub.

A better way to unwind while traveling

San Francisco holds bragging rights to the idea of a modern yoga airport room, but my question is, why don’t all airports have yoga rooms? It’s a logical place to pass time between and before flights. Here’s why:

1 – Traveling can be a very harried experience: trying to get through security checkpoints and jostling for a place in long, tedious lines. A yoga room offers a welcome time-out.

2 – Yoga calms the mind, keeping nervous, stressed passengers as mellow as possible before they scramble to catch their next flight.

3 – Yoga allows passengers to stretch their bodies between long, immobile stints in uncomfortable airplane seats.

4 – Yoga is a great alternative to other airport waiting options ”” like spending time at the airport bar or eating unhealthy food.

5 – Yoga helps keep travelers on their usual asana or meditation routine. Even if they have to miss their morning practice so they don’t miss their flight, once checked in and through security, they can take a few minutes to do some Surya Namaskars before they get on the plane.

A yoga room fosters a sense of community ”” even in the airport, where a sense of cooperation and community is arguably more important than ever.

Bloggers are calling SFO’s Yoga Room an amenity, but I think it’s a necessity. Soon enough, I hope that airports will offer all passengers such a refuge to pause and practice yoga while en route.