JUST BREATHE...

It’s day two of a cold snap in Toronto, and I’ve not left the house. Literally. I put on my cozy sweats and favourite wool sweater and haven’t moved. I’ve had two naps a day. In fact, I’ve just woken up from a late-afternoon siesta to pen this month’s Editor’s Note. I’m feeling very “Zen,” which is the perfect mindset to introduce the meditative theme that wends its way through this issue. Although the ’70s dominated the runways this season, there was another refreshing alternative to the fringed and flared-pants “fashionation.” Designers such as Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen and Consuelo Castiglioni at Marni, as well as 3.1 Phillip Lim and Aquilano. Rimondi, referenced Asian silhouettes and accessories that I’d describe as monkish, reflective and timeless. Think judo and obi belts and kimono shapes. If you’d like your mind to match your chilled fashion sense, there are several stories you’ll want to read. Start with “Comfort in Chaos” (page 164) by Andy Puddicombe, who is a meditation enthusiast and the co-creator of the Headspace app, and then follow that up with #lifereboot columnist Stephanie Gilman’s terrific piece on the Muse (“Slow Motion,” page 168). This brain-sensing headband from Toronto-based tech company InteraXon is on my #want list. (The band, which measures electrical impulses in the brain, provides feedback in the form of different sounds, such as birds and windstorms, to help train you to calm your mind.) In “Head Games” (page 114), Guy Saddy—who is perhaps the last person in the world I’d expect to meditate—writes about his foray into mantra land to explore why meditation groups have replaced bars in terms of being the best way to network your way into the corner office. For those of you who prefer your meditation to take the form of walking instead of sitting on a pillow in a darkened room, you’ll be inspired by Lara Koerner Yeo’s trip to western Tibet to help film a documentary about the pilgrimage community around the sacred peak of Mount Kailash. In “Around and Around We Go” (page 184), Koerner Yeo observes how easily we’re distracted by the constant struggle to achieve or complete everything that is expected of us. “It’s not an environment where people notice or understand the power of eye contact or a smile—gestures that came so naturally to pilgrims at Mount Kailash,” she writes. So don’t wait until a -40ºC wind chill forces you to take a quiet day (or two) to spend time with the people who make you smile.