To unplug and get re-centered in L.A.
WHEN IT’S ALL TOO MUCH, IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A CREATIVE DIGITAL DETOX
YOU’RE ON THE PHONE withyourboss,looking at a shared Google Doc on your computer screen, when your boyfriend calls on the other line. He wants to know if you’ve seen his text, with the Yelp reviews of the restaurant you’re headed to that night. The establishment also has texted — you need to confirm your reservation. ¶ Meanwhile, new emails are flooding your inbox, and the Slack app on your laptop is pinging. Breaking news alerts are popping up on your phone screen, which also shows someone has Venmo’d you $22 (you can’t remember what for) and your social media apps are lighted up with notifications — 54 likes on the goat hiking pic so far. That’s prompted messages on your social accounts from people wanting to know where they can hike with goats too. ¶ Then your mom calls — you never returned her voicemail. Is your heart racing yet? ¶ We live out our lives on screens, meeting partners on dating apps, networking on social media, shopping online and doomscrolling to unwind. As a consequence, we’re in a near-constant split-focus state of mind.
“There’s some — not surprising — research that suggests a real decrease in attention span due to overuse of technology,” says clinical psychologist Karen North, a professor of digital social media at USC. What’s more, she adds, the digital world is worsening problems people already have: “It can exacerbate an array of emotional problems, including anxiety and depression, in part because it deprives people from the very things that could help with or solve their problems, like human interaction or the richness of the in-person world.”
Beyond negative mental effects, being on a device all day is bad for your body. Chronic screen time can lead to eye strain, headaches, “tech neck,” carpal tunnel syndrome and other body pains. The blue light emitted by screens can disrupt our circadian rhythms and lead to worse sleep, says Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at UC San Francisco.
“And then there’s the consequence that the complete absorption in our devices is removing you from being outside and in nature, being physical,” says Gazzaley. “It’s about the cost of what’s missing.”
It may be familiar advice, but it’s worth repeating: Unplugging — staying off our devices, even keeping them out of reach or sight for periods of time — is vital for our physical and mental health, right up there with diet and exercise.
But it’s often hard to know exactly how to do that in our screen-saturated world. We journeyed around Los Angeles to unearth some of the most immersive and creative ways to unplug. They include unique spa experiences, hands-on crafting and a remote waterfall hike with, yes, goats.
Taking time away from our devices is admittedly a privilege that’s schedule-dependent,
and leisure activities can be costly. For that reason, this list includes activities with varied time commitments and price points — from free to donation-based to somewhat indulgent.
Whether you’re hoping to sneak away from the grind for an hour or a whole day, there should be something here for almost everyone. Choose one. Leave the phone behind. Breathe. Allow yourself to truly experience the analog world — the sound of crunching gravel beneath your feet on a hike, the view of late-day shadows across a soaring mountain range, the commingling scents of springtime foliage.
That unfamiliar feeling? It might just be peace and calm — if only for a little while.
Take a waterfall hike with goats in a canyon with no cell service
“Why goats?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” said Michelle Tritten of Hello Critter.
Tritten leads groups of up to 10 people — and four Nigerian dwarf goats — on a hike to a magnificent waterfall in a canyon with no cell service.
Goats, as it turns out, are excellent hiking companions. They’re smart and friendly, like dogs; adventurous, like horses; and curious, with distinct personalities, like cats.
On a recent outing, our goats — Felix, Lil’ Bit, Hansel and Gretel — frolicked and skipped and bucked along the moderate, creek-adjacent path, adding an especially uplifting mood to the hike. The journey was only about one mile, but it took more than two hours to complete, considering we repeatedly stopped for selfies with passing hikers.
Tritten won’t publicly disclose the hike’s location, lest that destroy the solace (it’s given upon RSVP). But it’s a low-elevation hike in Altadena, about 20 minutes from downtown L.A. With the rushing creek flanked by boulders and trees, the bleating goats and a magical waterfall at the end of the trail, however, you might as well be a million miles away.
Why goats? Because everything is just more fun with goats, not least of all hiking.
Price: Weekdays, $400 total for up to 10 people; weekends, $600 for up to 10 people.
Miles in and out: 1.2
Difficulty: Moderate (if crossing the creek)
Elevation gain: 246 feet l (213) 448-4848, hellocritter.com
Enjoy a Japanese tea ceremony on a seaside cliff in Malibu
Yusuian may be one of the most serene locations I’ve visited in two decades of writing about Los Angeles.
The traditional Japanese tea room is in a private home in Malibu on a cliff overlooking the ocean (the address is given upon RSVP). Rice paper shoji screens open onto a lushly landscaped Japanese-style garden. Inside, the minimalist space, with straw tatami mats on the floor, hosts chado tea ceremonies. Chado — or the “way of tea” — is the ritualistic preparation of green tea meant to provide guests a soothing break from the bustle of everyday life.
Founder Yuko Uyesugi, a certified chado instructor for the last 23 years, opened the Malibu space in 2009 to spread the word about the centuriesold practice of tea ceremony. She hosts classes there and, twice a year, opens the tea room for one-time visits. Guests don slippers and sit on the floor around a subterranean iron kettle in a lacquer-rimmed box as a kimono-clad Uyesugi (or a student of hers) prepares ceremonial matcha alongside delicate sweets — tiny sugar flowers and yuzu jelly candies the day I visited.
Afterward, guests enjoy plum tea in the living room while Uyesugi gives a short talk on the history of chado. That’s followed by a walk in a Japanese garden with a tiny bridge, stone lanterns and a waterfall. Short workshops cap off the two-hour visit — on either ikebana flower arranging or calligraphy — and there’s always a workshop on how to mix green tea with a bamboo whisk.
Price: $85 for a single visit.
Study the sky at a James Turrell Skyspace
Lie beneath one of the artist’s ethereal, immersive light installations and time becomes fluid and malleable, slowing and expanding at once. The socalled architectural Skyspaces contain hidden LED lights that shift in color and intensity with the movement of the sun at both dawn and dusk so that a swath of the sky — as seen through a cutout in the canopy of the structure — appears to change color by contrast.
Watch it turn green, pink and lavender, then fade to aquamarine, deep cobalt and black. Wait as it slowly lightens to luminescent gold. The effect is sublime.
There are only a handful of publicly accessible Turrell Skyspaces worldwide. And one of them — the only one open to the public in Southern California — is on the Pomona College campus in Claremont. Turrell graduated from the college in 1965, and the architectural installation, “Dividing the Light,” opened there in 2007. The work is part of the Benton Museum of Art’s collection, but it’s situated in the college’s Draper Courtyard at 6th Street and College Way and reservations are not required.
The lights go on daily
100 minutes before sunrise and 25 minutes before sunset, and they stay on for about an hour afterward.
The evening I visited, the open-air pavilion was populated by a professor giving a talk about color theory and about 20 college students, who lay sprawled out on the ground by a shallow pool of water mirroring the sky.
It’s an awe-inspiring setting. And the experience, which is season-, time- and weatherdependent, is never exactly the same.
But then again, neither are you.
Price: Free. l 156 E. 7th St., Claremont, (909) 621-8283, pomona.edu/museum /collections/james-turrell -skyspace
Float in a saltwater tank under twinkling stars
IntoMeSea calls itself a quantum wellness center. On entering, guests relax in the prefloat lounge with ice water or tea. Virtual reality headsets are on hand for a VR-guided meditation that will lead participants to the bottom of the sea so as to relax them prior to floating. But if that’s not your thing, there’s also a room with soaring ceilings, multiple skylights and a hand-painted labyrinth on the floor in which to meditate.
Float tanks — a.k.a. sensory deprivation tanks — are often small, dark and claustrophobicfeeling, which can defeat the purpose if you’re there to relax. At IntoMeSea, each of its three tanks is in its own private suite. One includes a eucalyptus aromatherapy steam room; the other two, a “fire and ice” setup for cold plunging and infrared sauna-going. They all include showers and dressing areas.
The tanks themselves are almost blindingly clean and roomy, with 7-foot-high ceilings. They contain 22 bags — about 1,200 pounds — of Epson salt each (more salt per gallon of water than the Dead Sea). Buttons inside the tank allow you to adjust the lighting (I chose pitch black), the sound (I chose meditative music) and the intensity of the twinkling stars on the ceiling (I chose full, because why not?). The spa also provides earplugs and tubes of petroleum jelly, the latter to keep salt out of the eyes.
Lying there in the dark, with the water at 98 degrees, roughly body temperature, felt more like floating in space than on the water’s surface. I thought it was impossible to be any more relaxed, but then came the postfloat lounge, with chilled fruit water and herbal tea, a salt chamber and a two-person infrared sauna.
Just beware of the bean bag-like moon pod chairs, as IntoMeSea calls them. I fell asleep in mine while listening to music, and there went a chunk of the afternoon.
Price: $88 for a one-hour float with 30 additional minutes for steam room and suite time. l 1812 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 310-8711, intome sea.com
Throw pottery on a rooftop at sunset
Atop a nondescript building on Beverly Boulevard, there are a dozen or so potters’ wheels at which you can throw pottery and look out over the Hollywood Hills during golden hour. The “Baroque” studio — one of three of Bitter Root Pottery’s locations — is in Liberace’s former penthouse apartment, which he inhabited from the late ’70s until his death in 1987. The space offers a touch of the drama the pianist was famous for, with a serene koi pond and sweeping views of both the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory. Other thoughtful details include a rooftop swing and a patio-turned-greenhouse.
Bitter Root offers plenty of classes for beginners, which include a demonstration followed by a hands-on tutorial. The combination of the pond’s rushing waterfall, the amberhued clouds dotting the horizon and the whirring of the wheel head make it easy to slip into a meditative state.
Don an apron, grab a lump of cream-colored clay and sponge water onto your workspace. Let the slippery clay ooze through your fingertips. And ignore all those ceramist influencers filming themselves nearby. Your iPhone is … well, what iPhone? Price: $95 for a two-hour class. l 7451 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 938-5511, bitterroot pottery.com
Burrow in Himalayan salt in a glowing cave
Don’t let Valley Salt Cave’s shopping mall location fool you. Its interior is transcendent.
The caves here are manmade. But with walls of luminescent Himalayan salt bricks, a hand-sculptured ceiling mimicking that of a natural cave and pink salt crystals on the floor, along with a gurgling waterfall, the 14-person community room feels otherworldy. Certainly soothing.
The Woodland Hills spa pumps microparticles of pharmaceutical-grade salt into the air through a vent. Owners Warren and Kari Shulman believe that dry salt therapy — halotherapy — aids with chronic respiratory and skin conditions, among other things. “It’s like a toothbrush for the lungs,” Warren Shulman says. Research suggests there may be some truth to that, to varying degrees.
Whether or not that’s true, I can say that snuggling in one of Valley Salt Cave’s cool, amberhued caverns, wrapped in a blanket on a zero-gravity chair under a ceiling of twinkling blue lights, is an excellent way to unwind.
Bonus, there’s a 10-minute recorded guided meditation at the start of every 45-minute session. Followed by time to sit there, breath deeply and just be. Price: Community room, $35 per person; private room, $45 per person for up to four people. l 20929 Ventura Blvd., Suite 12, Woodland Hills, (818) 963-7646, valleysaltcave.com
Travel the Milky Way in a night of stargazing Attend a star party where the biggest celebrities — in the night sky — have names like Vega, Sirius and Albireo.
Every month, on the Saturday closest to the first quarter moon, several astronomy clubs haul their telescopes up to the Griffith Observatory for a free stargazing party on the lawn. Among them: the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, the Planetary Society and the Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers. The Los Angeles Astronomical Society alone brings about 25 to 30 telescopes, its biggest being a 16-inch-diameter instrument that offers an especially detailed view of the stars.
The free party, hosted by Griffith Observatory, runs from 2 to 9:45 p.m., with special telescopes on hand to view the sun safely by day and others meant to view stars and planets at night. The astronomers will not only let members of the public use their telescopes but they’ll also offer instruction and fun factoids about, say, the moons of Jupiter or the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed in 1969. The Griffith Observatory’s nearly 90-year-old Zeiss refracting telescope, in its rooftop dome, is open to the public as well.
Star parties draw big crowds — with guests often sharing picnic dinners on the lawn — but the vibe is almost always quiet and calm.
“A lot of people are just wowed when they look through a telescope,” says Spencer SooHoo, the Astronomical Society’s membership secretary. “It puts things into perspective and shows you your place in the universe.”
Price: Free. l 2800 E. Observatory Road, Los Angeles, (213) 473-0800, griffithobservatory.org/visit /calendar/star-parties
Get dirty at a therapeutic horticultural center
At first glance, Meet Me in the Dirt appears to be a small if charming plant shop in Redondo Beach’s South Bay Galleria. But step into the soothing space, with its hanging plants, crystals and candelabras, and entire emotional worlds will open up — the most fertile of them inside of you.
Meet Me in the Dirt is a therapeutic horticultural space for growth founded by certified grief counselor Barbara Lawson. She opened the space to blend the healing effects of gardening with community, creativity and counseling services. The idea grew out of her own profound grief after her mother died; she took to gardening for solace and hope.
The shop is filled with plants, candles, journals and scented oils. But Lawson also offers private grief counseling sessions and group expressive arts workshops in the space. The latter are open to anyone looking to slow down, connect with the Earth and process feelings — grief or otherwise.
Sit down at a beautifully set dining table for the Meet Me in the Dirt plant meditation. Instead of food, there will be a bowl of dirt in front of you. Roll up your sleeves and thrust your hands into it, tossing and sifting the soil; finger the small sticks and stones. Now slowly and intentionally repot a plant. All the while, Lawson will guide you in an intuitive release of sorts, making connections between the needs of the plants — which might be thirsty or fragile or sun-scorched — and your own.
There may be tears; there will likely be laughter; and the nourishment will flow, bountifully. Price: $40 to $225, depending on the experience. $75 for the Meet Me in the Dirt plant meditation. l 1815 Hawthorne Blvd., 2nd Floor, Redondo Beach, (888) 400-0733, meetmeinthedirt.com
Close your eyes and breathe in nature
Debra Wilbur’s forest therapy sessions — a.k.a. forest bathing — at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens combine meditation, talk therapy in groups and a series of walking invitationals, as she calls them, meant to help participants slow down, get out of their heads and feel grounded.
What, exactly, is she inviting you to do as you wander at a snail’s pace through the gardens?
To open your mouth and taste the air on your tongue; fondle the plants, grazing their silky smooth leaves; close your eyes and tune into the sound of the wind and the trilling of wild parrots; or observe the ecosystem of the lily ponds filled with koi, ducks and turtles. To stretch. To laugh. To rest.
It’s all in service of connecting, as wholeheartedly as possible, with your natural environment, the moment and, ultimately, yourself.
Price: $60 for members, $80 otherwise, for a two-part class. l 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, (626) 405-2100, huntington.org
Get lost in a stony labyrinth in Pasadena
The winding paths that take you into and around Pasadena’s Arlington Garden make the 3-acre property feel like one big, glorious labyrinth, but follow the trails to the back half of the site and you’ll find a proper labyrinth perfectly shaded by an old, gnarled tree. The pattern is laid out in pale colored stones, and if you walk on a warm day you might find yourself accompanied by bees, hummingbirds and a handful of lizards. When you reach the center, you’ll gaze out over one of the most beautiful low-water landscapes around.
Price: Free. l 275 Arlington Drive, Pasadena, arlingtongarden pasadena.org
Getting crafty on a flower shop’s patio
Take a charming, sunlit plant shop, add some delicious food, then sprinkle in some arts and crafts and you’ve got Flower Tortillas, which opened in late 2023 in downtown San Pedro. The business, run by husbandhusband team Jeff Lavia-Garcia and Robert Lavia-Garcia, is primarily a plant and flower shop, but it also caters events both on- and off-site.
You can enjoy the calming and creatively fulfilling benefits of crafting here too. Flower Tortillas opens its lush back patio or shop floor on certain Friday evenings for “an enchanting world of DIY magic,” as Jeff Lavia-Garcia describes it. The 1½- to two-hour workshops include terrarium making, floral arranging, plantings and wreath making. This summer, the shop plans to offer gardening classes as well as live music and community dinners.
Those would be catered by, what else but Flower Tortillas? We’re talking about DIY magic, after all.
Price: $40 to $80, including materials, food and nonalcoholic drinks. l 161 N. Bandini St., San Pedro, (562) 800-0116, flowertortillas .com/s/shop
Meditate at a serene retreat in the hills
Gardener Pepe Rodriguez offered me a bright smile and a brown paper bag bursting with freshly picked lemons. He may not be there to greet every visitor, but the welcoming energy sums up the vibe at Insight L.A., a nonprofit meditation center that offers a robust, especially accessible lineup of both inperson and online meditation classes as well as daylong and overnight retreats. Most classes are donation-based, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Insight L.A. has a Santa Monica location and also holds overnight retreats through a partnership with the Big Bear Retreat Center. Its Benedict Canyon location near Beverly Hills is a remote and serene hillside escape within the heart of the city.
Rodriguez, who’s been meditating since he started working at Insight L.A. more than 10 years ago, led me around the property. We walked past the lemon, apple, grapefruit, mandarin and nectarine trees he tends to; towering pines and fragrant lavender bushes; through a redwood-beamed, more-than-60-year-old home where classes are held. The living room turned meditation hall offers views of the outdoors through an enormous picture window.
Rodriguez pointed out the rising chorus of crows, sparrows and wild parrots, and the wildlife that wanders around the property.
“It puts you in another state,” he said. “You’re peaceful.” Price: Donation-based; no one will be turned away for lack of funds. l 9940 Westwanda Drive, Benedict Canyon, (310) 450-1821, insightla.org