Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Burlington International Airport Vermont and Chicago Midway International Airport —all in USA, and Helsinki Airport in Finland, already offer yoga facilities.
Recently opened “Yoga Room” at SFRA, in partnership with CPMFITness, carries yoga mats and a chart showing yoga poses which even the inexperienced passengers can follow and practice, reports suggest. SFRA Facebook post says: Passengers using Sioux Falls Regional Airport can now squeeze in some yoga.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all US airports and top world airports—Singapore Changi, Incheon (South Korea) International, Amsterdam Schiphol, Hong Kong International, Beijing Capital International, Munich, Zurich, Vancouver International, Tokyo (Haneda) International, London Heathrow—to provide yoga facilities for the passengers if they wanted to help reduce their stress levels and be “world-class” airports.
Commending gesture of Chicago (O’Hare & Midway), Dallas, San Francisco, Burlington and Sioux Falls airports for availability of yoga for passengers, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all.
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil” whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was a mental and physical discipline for everybody to share and benefit from. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical, Zed added.
Zed also praised the existence of “Meditation Room” at Albuquerque International Sunport in New Mexico and Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, and “Interfaith Airport Chapel” at Chicago Midway International Airport—all in USA. Meditation, prayer, reflection and contemplation bring positive results, Zed adds.
According to USA’s National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga.
SFRA, established in 1937, serves parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. Julie Schnaible is Chair of SFRA Authority Board, while Dan Letellier is the Executive Director.