There is nothing relaxing about going through an airport. It seems just seeing the words “Security” or “All Gates” or “LaGuardia” can make your entire muscular system constrict and tighten — your skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscles all tangle themselves like strands of cheap Christmas lights. In most cases, there’s nothing for you to do about it, and it only gets worse when you’re shuffling past a TSA agent in your sock feet, trying to find the one available wall outlet in Terminal A and grinding your teeth when you fork over $5 for a bottle of water.
Fortunately, some airports feel your pain and they want to help you work through it, whether that’s by giving you a place to practice your asana poses, providing a quiet space where you can center yourself for a few minutes or just allowing you to close your eyes and stretch into a savasana pose. So here are five airports – four domestic and one international – with dedicated yoga spaces.
Dallas-Fort Worth: The fully equipped yoga studio at DFW is located at Gate D40, right between Terminal B and Terminal D. Yoga mats are provided, as is a “partial privacy screen” which means that other travelers will see only your majestic, Lululemon-wearing silhouette, not the way you’re contorting your face while you try to hold another Warrior pose.
Burlington, Vt.: The well-equipped studio on the second floor of Burlington International Airport was designed by Evolution Yoga, a local studio. The Evolution staff selected the mats, meditation cushions and wall colors to create an environment that is both welcoming and soothing. Also, there are shower facilities in the family bathroom across from the studio, so you can always just soak for a few minutes then convince everyone that you worked up a serious sweat during your Sun Salutation.
Chicago O’Hare: The yoga room at in Terminal 3 at ORD has a bamboo floor, a mirrored wall and provides yoga mats. It also has video monitors that play an endless loop of other people doing yoga, so you can always stop in there for a second just to remind yourself what relaxation is supposed to look like. If you’re in Chicago’s other airport, Midway has a yoga room as well, and its sustainable bamboo features sound a lot like ORD’s, right down to the peaceful sounds bubbling through the speakers.
Helsinki: Surprisingly, there are very few international airports that have on-site yoga rooms. London’s Heathrow has a yoga room that can be accessed through the SkyTeam Lounge, but Helsinki’s peaceful-looking yoga space is open to any traveler. The airport’s yoga area is located in Kainuu, which is a lounge that looks like the Brooklyn apartment that none of us can afford, with an open floor plan and “wooden chairs made from trees blown down in storms.” Kainuu isn’t just for yoga (although the airport does periodically offer yoga classes) but mats are always provided and, yes, they do perfectly complement the woodsy green carpet, a color meant to suggest “a mossy forest floor.”
San Francisco: The world’s first airport yoga studio opened at SFO in 2012 and it has since added a second location. The airport’s 24-hour yoga rooms are located at the area where Terminals 1 and 2 connect, and near Gate 69 in Terminal 3. Those are both domestic terminals, so international passengers will have to find another way to center themselves, whether that’s through deep breathing or by whispering spoilers to anyone who’s still carrying a copy of Gone Girl to the gate.
Leave a comment below if you come across any other yoga rooms at airports.
From: Road Warrior Voices