Stressed out by flying?
Travelers in Northern California can now find their inner calm in the Yoga Room at San Francisco International Airport.
The quiet, dimly lit studio officially opened last week in a former storage room just past the security checkpoint at SFO's Terminal 2.
Airport officials think that the 150-square-foot room with mirrored walls is the world's first airport yoga studio, says spokesman Mike McCarron.
The room, open to all ticketed passengers, contains a few chairs and yoga mats but no instructors or televisions. No shoes, food, drinks or cellphones are allowed.
"Silence is appreciated," says a sign spelling out "Yoga Room Etiquette."
A prominent sign with a Buddha-like pictogram beckons visitors: "Come check out our Yoga Room."
Frequent flier Maria Poole accepted the invitation, practicing a downward dog asana and other yoga poses before boarding her flight.
"It's perfect," says Poole, 47. "I think it should be in every airport, especially the terminals that I fly through. This would be such a great way for me to get my exercise in, get a little peace and quiet -- a little Zen moment."
The Yoga Room is just the latest example of how airports are trying to improve the passenger experience and showcase their regional culture, says Debby McElroy, executive vice president of Airports Council International-North America, in noting yoga's popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In recent years, airports have upgraded food and shopping venues and added massage services, nail salons, dry cleaners and pet hotels, McElroy says. But SFO is the first in North America and probably the world to add a yoga room.
"I expect other airports will be looking at whether a yoga room at their airport makes sense," McElroy says.
The idea came from a passenger who checked out the newly remodeled terminal last year and told the airport's director, John Martin, it was lacking one thing: a yoga room.
Martin, a longtime yoga practitioner, agreed. The airport spent $15,000 to $20,000 to turn the storage space into the studio.
SFO officials had to design the Yoga icon after not finding one in the international guide of airport pictograms that direct travelers to taxis, restrooms and baggage claim carousels around the world.
Flier Lindsey Shepard, who was traveling with Poole, says she likes having "a dark place to chill out and have a timeout and relax."
"Flying can be stressful," Shepard says. "It's nice to have something to do at the airport besides sit around and eat bad food and read magazines."
Of course, the Yoga Room isn't a place everyone would visit before or between flights.
"If I got into yoga, I might lose track of time and miss my flight," says Robert Diaz, 52, who was visiting San Francisco with his wife. "I'd be so relaxed."
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