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Tag: relax

  • Lululemon partners with local organisations to increase access to yoga

    Lululemon partners with local organisations to increase access to yoga

    Lululemon stores in Australia and New Zealand are teaming up with local nonprofits and charitable organizations to increase access to yoga and meditation.

    Stores this month will distribute grants to nonprofits and charities of their choosing that are working to break down social, physical and economic barriers to yoga and meditation.

    This is part of Lululemon’s global Here to Be program, which aims to spread the health benefits of yoga and meditation to more people around the world.

    The program first launched in 2016 and was brought to Australia and New Zealand earlier this year. Now, local stores are starting to have an impact on their communities.

    Lululemon stores in Mosman, Balmain, Chatswood and Warringah Mall, for instance, are teaming up to provide a grant to The Yoga Impact Charity, which offers yoga classes for refugees and teaches yoga teachers how to teach trauma-informed yoga to refugees.

    “As a company rooted in yoga and committed to personal development, we aim to create real change within our local communities through our social impact program Here To Be,” Paul Tinkler, managing director for Lululemon in Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement.

    “Our purpose is to elevate the world by unleashing the full potential within everyone one of us. We are accelerating our efforts across social impact, as a main agenda point for the year and we’re honored to be working with organizations that are up to big things in this area. We’re excited to see the positive changes across our communities.”

    Here to Be has provided more than US$10 million in grants globally and developed more than 500 grassroots nonprofit partnerships. It also has donated more than 10,000 yoga mats and says it’s just getting started.

    The retailer on Wednesday announced it will donate US$1 million over the next three years to a program that will teach mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing and yoga, to thousands of United Nations staff and aid workers, who report experiencing high rates of burnout.

    The program, called Peace on Purpose, aims to equip UN staff with the tools to care for themselves so they can care for others.

    The funding from Lululemon will help Peace on Purpose to train more than 3000 UN development and humanitarian workers in-person over the next three years, build a hub of digital resources and develop condensed trainings and curriculum translations to reach 30,000 staff.

    “With increasing need for international humanitarian aid and peacekeeping, we want to cultivate the long-lasting benefits of mindfulness tools and sustain support for those whose mission is to serve others,” Calvin McDonald, CEO of Lululemon, said in a statement.

    Research following selected trainings found that over half the participants saw an improvement in overall well-being as seen in key psychological risk factors, such as work-related self-compassion, anxiety and depression, symptoms related to trauma and feelings of distress.

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  • Relax with CooTek’s Breeze app amidst soothing sounds

    Relax with CooTek’s Breeze app amidst soothing sounds

    That riot of a trend for soul-soothing sights and sounds from our electronic devices has given birth to underload like Cardi B.’s autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos but also to a universe of apps that help us relax and sleep better. Enter Breeze, CooTek’s revamped Relax Music app that brings about a complete set of tools for your chill-out vibes or midday meditation session in the office bathroom. White or pink noises are just the beginning, as Breeze categorizes its soul trips by activity, be it traveling, trying to focus, or simply trying to nap.

    From crunchy steps in the snow through bird chirping to wheat rustling in the wind, the app’s set offers a rich variety of nature sounds tailored to your preference or specific activity. The guided meditation sessions can get you from chants to singing bowls and improve your relaxation technique further. CooTek has put significant effort in upgrading the Breeze experience from sound sets to narrated sessions tailored to specific needs which are fittingly called “Courses”.

    There are entries that teach you how to meditate if you do it for the first time, with soothing voices of English actors, in addition to female-specific relaxation techniques, next to an inventive ASMR list that includes such morning staples like a hair dryer or kitchen cleaning sounds. Breeze ran a chill-out campaign providing meditation booths at the MWC expo, and plenty of folks took the chance to relax from the show floor madness by just sitting or lying down and listening to the relaxing narrators for daydreaming guided meditation.

    Now, don’t outsource your parental responsibilities to an app, but you can also supplement tucking your offspring in with the bedtime stories category, too. It does what it says on the tin by playing fairy tales or sweet lullabies all the while you are sitting by your kids’ bed watching the process.

    All basic sections of Breeze are free and ad-supported while getting to the Premium level for a few bucks opens all sounds, removes ads and above all, gives you access to all of the guided relaxation programs that the app offers. Check Breeze out if you are in the mood for de-stressing.

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  • Four Korean firms join forces to fight Netflix

    Four Korean firms join forces to fight Netflix

    SK Telecom is teaming up with three major broadcasters to launch a new video content service in a bid to challenge the popularity of foreign services like Netflix. On Thursday, SK Telecom and broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS signed an MOU to combine their current over-the-top (OTT) media service businesses and launch a new and improved service by the first half of this year. OTT refers to content that is delivered directly to users over the internet without going through intermediaries like television.

    The four companies will also establish a joint venture that combines the OTT operations of each party. SK Telecom CEO and President Park Jung-ho said he is seeking around 200 billion won ($177.9 million) in investment for the new firm.

    SK Telecom’s subsidiary SK Broadband currently operates Oksusu, a television and movie platform released in 2016. The three broadcasters have Pooq, a joint venture that MBC and SBS both have a 40 percent stake in, while KBS holds 20 percent.

    Videos from over 70 channels are available on Pooq, including drama series from the 1990s and early 2000s.

    All four companies are expected to benefit from the partnership. Pooq has already established ties with Southeast Asian companies, having partners in Hong Kong’s Viu, Malaysia’s iflix and China’s iQiyi.

    During the MOU signing, SK Telecom CEO Park said he hoped to see the new strengthened service launch in Southeast Asia by June.

    In return, the three TV channels will have access to SK Telecom’s financial resources, which can be invested in original content production.

    The partnership is seen as an effort by the domestic companies to combine forces to fend off growing foreign competition, especially that posed by Netflix.

    Oksusu has 9.46 million registered users while Pooq has 3.7 million. Netflix is estimated to have around 900,000 domestic registered accounts, still trailing far behind the local companies.

    These figures only tell half the story, however.

    While Oksusu is the No. 1 OTT service in Korea in the number of accounts, its number of monthly active users is only estimated to be two-thirds of registered users. OTT services from competing mobile carriers like KT’s Olleh TV and LG U+’s Video Portal are also catching up quickly in total users.

    Also, very few original videos produced by Korean OTT service providers have enjoyed success.

    Netflix, on the other hand, saw tremendous growth in the three years it has been operating in Korea.

    As of last September, users spent a total of 283 million minutes a month on Netflix’s mobile app on Android according to WiseApp, which analyzes mobile app usage. Just two years ago, users had spent 14 million minutes a month on Netflix, or 20 times less.

    During the same period, the time that Oksusu and Pooq users spent on the apps increased less than twofold.

    Users spent a total of around 600 million minutes a month on both apps as of last September.

    Experts believe that the content budget is largely to explain for the differences in growth.

    Netflix is estimated to have spent around $8 billion on content production and licensing last year. Oksusu spent only around 10 billion won in content investment, however, a fraction of Netflix levels.

    “Through this partnership, Korean OTT service providers can strengthen the competitiveness of their content, which has been their weakest point,” said Jung Ji-soo, an analyst at Meritz Securities. “[The companies’] goal of becoming Korea’s Netflix will also help in energizing the domestic media ecosystem.”