You need some "Be Time". Meditation rooms, in a megabus near you (or New York, anyway)

UK residents may have had quite enough of large, inviting promises emblazoned on the side of buses. But maybe we should give this one a whirl, as a suggestion all the way from New York: BE TIME, a mobile meditation studio.

From their blurb in DesignBoom

BE TIME has been created to provide a space that is quiet, cozy, unexpected and can hold people in their meditation practice while taking a break from busy days. The moving studio will have experienced instructors guiding in person meditation classes at 30 minute intervals. because the BE TIME is mobile, its able to access more people and more places. ‘you move, we move,’ the founder says.

On top of the 30 minute guided practices, BE TIME will also offer ‘open space’ hours where meditators are welcome to hop in and perform their own practice. BE TIME invites people to come in, and take a breath from the urban hustle while in a serene space that incorporates self-care bonuses: aromatherapy, light + chromo therapy and weighted blankets to add to your meditation experience. BE TIME is a fully transformative 30 min ‘mind break’ with extra add-ons to help sooth you through the practice. 

And there you have it. (They're not the first in NY, incidentally - here's Calm City.) The design of the interiors (see above) are by Aidai Studio - and they are to our eyes very "techgnostic" (see work of Erik Davis). 

What else could fill such a bus - library? Debate space? Fabrication lab? Immersive art experience? We hope some fourth sector entrepreneurs are leaping to the opportunity. 

We have covered meditation as one of the tools of the "I" in our "I-We-World" framework for building a new and vibrant citizenship. This bus does raise some questions though. What happens when it rolls up to Wall Street or Madison Avenue? Is this mobile meditation-zone a means of adjusting people to their same old toxic lifestyles and work-practices? Or is it the beginning of mental autonomy for people otherwise in the grip of business-as-usual? 

(Note: Here's an interesting article on mindfulness and politics from Open Democracy's Transformation page.)