Think About It

"We wanted to create premium experience. We've curated every element and obviously are in the Yorkville area [upscale downtown Toronto] to appeal to a certain demographic."
"If you [told] someone in the 1950s you were going for a run, people would be like, 'Who are you running from'?"
"The attitude on fitness has completely changed from 'What's that?' to a niche part of the market to an accepted necessity."
"The brain is the next frontier of that."
Sean Finnell, Mindset Brain Gym co-founder, Toronto

Mastermind

Meditation, it appears, works. The "use it or lose it" admonition we've heard so often about our physiognomy had a reason; exercise or allow the body to slump into disuse and eventually frailty. Mindfulness is the new gym for the brain; sustaining attention to thoughts, to objects, or to actions; cognitive focus for the purpose of refocusing the mind. As a regular performance, meditation has been shown to increase focus, positive emotions, cognitive reasoning skills and rapid memory recall.

In 2012, Gaelle Desbordes, an instructor at Harvard Medical School's Center for Biomedical Imagining, made use of brain scans to demonstrate beyond doubt that brain activity changes remain constant long beyond meditation-practising subjects are no longer meditating. The practise alters the way the mind works. 'Brain gyms' sound like a gimmick and perhaps they are, but they provide lessons for people wanting to be instructed on how to meditate.

At Mindset Brain Gym, newly opened in Toronto, young professionals sit cross-legged in rows under iridescent indigo lights while soothing ocean music provides the background as an instructor guides those present through a session of meditation lasting 30 minutes. The participants' brainwaves are measured with the use of plastic headbands, monitoring the calmness of their minds and the wandering thought "recoveries" produced throughout a session.

Mastermind

"Performance" to improve concentration and memory, "Resilience", to reduce anxiety and promote bounce-backs from failure, and "Human" meant to improve empathy and emotional intelligence are all achieved through these sessions in mindfulness. These lessons are reflected in what happens at a popular meditation studio in the Flatiron District of New York City in "The Dome" studio with its appearance of a giant spaceship interior glowing with multi-colour LED lights.

A boutique sells "moon dust", herb and mushroom blends meant to improve one's state from the sleep cycle to sex life. Also available are "cleansing grains" and "radiance nectar", at a substantial price. Granted, this element of commercialization is recognizable as a silly scam.

At Den Meditation in Los Angeles, classes are offered from an a la carte "private healing menu" including crystal therapy (60 min. for $125); sound therapy (30 min for $65); Theta Healing deep meditation to release past traumas (60 min. for $150). For those with deep pockets, full meditation retreats to destinations such as the Himalayas start at $4,000.

Upselling meditation is what it's called; typical examples of U.S.-style entrepreneurial enterprise. Which fits right in with the culture of virtue-signalling. We know virtue signalling best from watching the political sphere of the Lib-left deeply embedded in its uncompromising 'progressive' agenda and shrill shrieks of condemnation against their conservative political opposites whom they usually describe in such gentle terms as 'right-wing' or 'fascist'.

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