I’ve been trying to get myself to meditate for, oh, about two years now. I was almost sure I’d like it, too, because I imagined meditating would be similar to that relaxed, zoned-in feeling I get after yoga, when I’m lying in Savasana completely centered and calm. But I couldn’t get myself over the hump to try it until this year, when I got so stressed and anxious — over the pandemic, the election, personal health issues; take your pick, honestly — that I basically turned to meditation as a last-ditch attempt to find some calm, somewhere.
I didn’t imagine I’d discover it with Beachbody, a brand I knew through high-intensity workout programs like Insanity (my first love, when it comes to fitness plans) and Morning Meltdown 100. But Beachbody gave me the chance to try its new three-week meditation plan, and, knowing that a set program would keep me on track, I put in my Airpods one night, plopped down on the floor of my bedroom, and hit play. Here’s how it went.
What Is Beachbody’s Unstress Program?
Unstress, Beachbody’s meditation program (available on Beachbody On Demand; $39 for three months), is a three-week plan with one 10-minute guided meditation per day. Each meditation is led by a different teacher and has a different focus, including “Silence and Stillness Within,” “Cultivating Gratitude,” “Morning Positive Mindset,” and “Body Scan,” my personal favorite.
Each video starts with a short introduction from Suze Yalof Schwartz, the founder and CEO of Unplug, a meditation app that partnered with Beachbody to create the program. Schwartz briefly introduces the focus for the day, then hands it over to the teacher, who invites you into the practice and sets you up physically (sitting, lying down, or whatever posture they recommend). When the meditation begins, the video fades to a clip of a calming, natural landscape, usually a lake or an ocean, as you close your eyes. Deep tonal music plays in the background and the teacher leads you through the meditation. Each video is different, but there’s a lot of focus on breathing, setting intentions, and feeling sensations in different parts of your body.
So, it’s a pretty simple setup. Every day, you click to the next meditation (they’re all labeled, Day 1 through Day 21), sit down, and sink in.
