Earlier this month, I saw on Facebook that Headspace would be coming to Pittsburgh and doing a two day, live event in Schenley Plaza for free, and I RSVP’ed as quickly as possible. I found out they were actually launching their Happy Healthy America campaign here, which is so cool for Pittsburgh and really exciting for me!

I’ve written about using Headspace before – it’s a guided mindfulness meditation app. I will admit that I’m not always the best about using it daily, but I am really trying to be better about my practice. I love that the app has so many different lengths of meditation – I can stick to the 5 minute ones, for now, since I’m still getting used to it. They also have so many different categories – meditation for anxiety, for focus, to help with sleep… something for whatever you’re looking for.

Headspace took over Schenley Plaza and put up a huge, inflatable structure – “The Dot” – where all of the events took place. When I say huge, I mean it – it was three different connected bubbles, basically, all with room to walk around and explore. One of them was set up for the live meditation sessions, with little poufs to sit on, and one of the others had a QR code that you could scan for a fun Headspace filter for Facebook/Instagram (which I obviously took advantage of!). They had a whole bunch of activities going on across the two days they were there, but I specifically signed up for the live meditation session on Friday.

I wasn’t exactly sure if I was going to enjoy it, going into it – I wasn’t sure if I’d be self conscious meditating in front of other people, or if I’d accidentally fall asleep! But it was THE BEST. I didn’t feel self-conscious or fall asleep – I just felt incredibly relaxed! It was led by Eve, who is the female voice on the app (I’ve actually only listened to Andy before), and she was great. I think it probably lasted about 10-15 minutes or so, but I wasn’t really checking my watch! Afterwards, I got to walk around a bit and explore the rest of “The Dot.” The only issue, for me, was the it wasn’t very warm inside of the huge bubble, and by the end of my time there all I wanted was to be WARM. But at least I was relaxed!