City life can be crazy, and New York City living is as hectic as it gets.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone could deliver a dose of calm right to your doorstep?
Or, like a food truck delivering exotic cuisine, bring some inner peace right to your neighborhood?
Kristin Westbrook thought so. That is why she started Calm City—New York’s first mobile meditation center.
Since May, Westbrook has been circulating the city offering 10 minutes of peace and relaxation for $10.
She parks her RV at the curbside like any other vendor, and offers customers guided meditation to basically, clean their brains and refresh their souls.
Susan, visiting from Massachusetts, saw the parked truck while walking back to her hotel and stopped in for a session.
“It was awesome, awesome,” she said. “It was awesome, awesome. It would be so wonderful if people would really do this.
“It’s a total reset. It’s a total reset. I mean any sort of high-level stress, it just would bring it right down, remind you to breathe, remind you to come inside, remind you to just feel your feet and drop in. It’s perfect.”
Westbrook has room for as many as nine meditators at a time in her comfortable, climate controlled RV. Calm City, the name of her truck as well as her business, is one of only two in the country, Westbrook said. The other one works in Detroit, where it is probably needed as much as it is here in New York City.
Westbrook, a certified meditation instructor, was eager to share the benefits of her craft with the public, who needs what she offers whether they know it or not.
She knows the idea of mobile meditation is foreign to most people. She said her 3-month-old business is still in the “testing phase.”
“Chill delivered in just ten minutes” is her company motto. “Relax, recharge, and find balance in a safe and friendly environment.” What New Yorker wouldn’t pay $10 for that?
“Generally, meditation is 20 minutes, but 10 minutes really is enough time to bring your focused awareness back to your breath, in this case,” Westbrook explained.
“I love when people come in here and mediate because the look on their face just changes so much when they leave. It’s so relaxing and so purifying.
“People walk by and they are like, ‘Oh wait, let me stop in. Let me see what’s going on in here.’ And they are kind of stressed and then they sit and they sit for 10 minutes and their whole mood shifts, and it’s really great.”
