Meditating At Hoame Just Got Totally High-Tech (Win!)

In tough times like these, we could all use a little mental-health help. Enter Hoame, North America’s largest modern meditation studio (based in Canada), which is launching a virtual meditation studio on Meta Quest this month. The mission: to bring world-class meditation classes and guidance to the immersive virtual realm of VR. We chatted with Hoame co-founders Stephanie Kersta and Carolyn Plater about how the program works, and why they’re determined to provide a global audience with a chance to experience the mental wellness benefits of meditation. Plus, with the help of our friends at Best Buy Canada, we’re giving you a chance to win everything you need (read: an Oculus Quest 2 128GB VR Headset with Touch Controllers, valued at $400) to meditate at home, with Hoame. —Noa Nichol

Hello both! Please tell us a bit about yourselves to start.

Stephanie: Thanks so much for interviewing us! We are both masters-level mental health clinicians, educators at a number of post secondary institutions, and the co-founders of Hoame, which is a brick and morter studio (North America’s largest) and now a virtual meditation studio on the Meta Quest.

When and why did you launch Hoame? What niche were/are you aiming to fill?

Carolyn: Hoame is a modern meditation studio; we have two unique studio spaces, one is a light room which has a massive moss wall, and vines hanging down from the ceiling, and the other is the dark room that is completely dark inside with a fibre-optic starry ceiling. We also have an infrared sauna and a himalyan salt cave. Our reason for building Hoame was to bring meditation to Toronto in a big and exciting way. As mental health clinicians we wholeheartedly believe in the power of mindfulness and meditation and see firsthand through our clinical practice the benefits. We wanted to create a space that people were excited to come to, and to encourage the practice if they were intimidated or nervous to try meditation. Building a community was also very important to us, we wanted to create a space that brought together people, as we know the mental health benefits of connection.

Congrats on the launch of your virtual meditation studio on Meta Quest! Please tell us more about this service, who it is for, how it can be accessed and what makes it unique.

Stephanie: Thanks so much! This is an app for the Meta headset. This app allows you to “step” into our studio and have a front row spot in multiple daily meditation classes in our light room. In addition to daily studio classes, we also have a library of on demand classes in various beautiful locations and we also offer monthly community events such as reiki healing, crystal reading classes, tarot readings and more! This app is for everyone, as everyone can reap the benefits of meditation. You can access the app through the Oculus (Meta) app store. In addition to the various offerings, as we are mental health clinicians, we have also embedded in some mental health tools such as a mood tracker to see in real time the effect of your practice on your mood as well as a hoamies score to encourage you to build a regular daily practice as we know there are huge benefits to consistency. You can also customize your sit set, and see other users who are also meditating alongside you to personalize your practice and build connection!

What wellness benefits does at-home meditation provide?

Carolyn: We always say that the benefits of meditation are from the top of your head to the tips of your toes and everywhere in between! There are documented physical benefits such as impacts on cardiac health, pain reduction, immune response, decreased inflammation and improved sleep, mental health benefits such as decreased anxiety, improved mood and decreased depressive symptoms, improved resilience and decreased stress. We also see positive benefits on creativity, focus, better management of ADHD symptoms, improved empathy and improved self-esteem, among others. An added benefit of an at-home practice is that you are more likely to be consistent as you never have to leave the house, and with today’s health crisis that is more important that ever as your practice won’t negatively be impacted by lockdowns or stay home orders.

Tell us more about why you think now, more than ever, the mental wellness benefits of meditation are needed?

Stephanie: Simply put, our current stress-filled lifestyles are unsustainable, we are seeing soaring rates of stress, mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression, insomnia, decreased resiliency and loneliness. In addition, it has been a very stressful past two years, which has highlighted the need for tools to support our mental health and well-being.

What are your top tips for meditating at home, using Hoame’s new virtual meditation studio?

Carolyn: The beauty of the app is that the minute you put the headset on you are completely transported so you really don’t need much else to create an immersive environment. I would encourage a comfortable spot to sit in, and perhaps use some essential oils for a sensory element. At our studio in Toronto we scent our studio with our signature scent that we custom blended to be as stress reducing as possible; as well, we know scent is a strong memory anchor that can support your practice, if you use the same scent every time you practice. We encourage you to try that!

Final, personal question: what’s your favourite/go-to meditation mantra?

Both: We love any mantra that uses “I am” in it, as we know that anything you put after those two words is quite powerful. Right now we are loving “I am well” and “I am at peace”.

hoame.ca

Win! A Hoame + Best Buy Meditation Prize Pack!

Congrats Amanda P. of Port Coquitlam, BC, who will receive a Hoame + Best Buy Meditation Prize Pack, including a 1 year membership to the Hoame app, a Hoamies sweatshirt, 2 essential oils and a $400 Oculus Quest 2 128GB VR Headset with Touch Controllers set! Please note: if you are the winner, you will receive a DM (direct message) in Instagram directly from @vitadaily.ca. Please be wary of fake accounts, which often use similar handles with an extra or missing letter, number or symbol. We will never ask for a payment or for your credit card number, and we will never ask you to click through a link. If you are unsure whether you have been contacted, via Instagram, by us or a fake account, email us before responding.