Relax in the middle of the Milan Design Week, one of the busiest weeks of the year. It seems like a rather complicated undertaking yet Starpool made it possible with the Wellness Coach, a guide who transports you to another place, to another dimension, simply committed to listening to your body, to breathe, to forget what surrounds you.
We forgot: the guide here is virtual. In fact, the Starpool Wellness Coach is not a human being but a combination of hardware and software that adapts as much to the home environment as to hotels, spas and all those structures that want to offer something more to their customers.
The Starpool Wellness Coach: our proof
Make yourself comfortable, choose the desired route, put on the supplied headphones and let yourself be pampered by the guide voice.
The Wellness Coach is as relaxing as it is intuitive. There is nothing complicated. Indeed, everything is designed to allow anyone to use this system, without needing previous knowledge or being particularly inclined to technology.
To explain why, however, we must take a step back.
The virtual guide of Starpool is divided into two different products: the Personal and Social versions. Aesthetically they are very similar: we have un display touchscreen da 10″ supported by an adjustable metal support with safety lock. To differentiate them is the height, with the Personal 65 cm high and the Social 122 cm, and the audio output. The Personal model is in fact associated with a pair of over-ear headphones that guarantee an excellent level of isolation while Wellness Coach Social interfaces with uno speaker Bluetooth. As you can guess, one variant is intended for individuals while the other is well suited to group sessions.
But sessions of what? The software is designed to support 3 different types of activities:
- mindfulness;
- guided breathing;
- music.
The programs of mindfulness are 5, have different levels of difficulty and have been developed exclusively by neuroscientist Nicola De Pisapia.
The 5 programs of r are also in order of complexityguide exhalationta, this time made together with Andrea Zuccari, world record holder in No Limits freediving.
Finally we have 5 pieces of music that can accompany moments of relaxation with its slow and delicate nature.
All this is selectable, along with the volume and duration of the sessions, via the touch display. The interface is simple,
intuitive and it only takes a few seconds to start one of the programs present.
Per our test of Wellness Coach Personal we opted for the intermediate level of guided breathing and selected a time of 10 minutes. After wearing headphones and an eye mask – so as to ensure greater immersion -, we let ourselves be carried away by the guide voice: in a first phase it was explained to us how to breathe using both the diaphragm and the chest, while the second part of the session left us the task of keeping the same pace. All of this helps you to focus on just one thing, to breathe, I would leave behind stress, anxieties and negative thoughts.
Let’s be clear, diaphragmatic breathing is not immediate, it requires some practice, but it is the most natural way to breathe. The Wellness Coach thus plays a double role: teach you to use the diaphragm and put in your hands a method that allows you to relax.
Who is the Wellness Coach suitable for?
The Starpool product, both in Personal and Social versions, it goes well with different types of structures and activities. It could be perfect in a hotel, as an additional service for the well-being of guests, or in a spa, where it can become part of a more complex journey.
It could also find a place in a massage center, giving customers the opportunity to relax even before starting the treatment.
Nothing then prevents you from place it inside your home. It is true, guided breathing can also be done independently but not everyone is able to isolate themselves when they are alone, in total silence. There are those who tend to get distracted, those who lose the rhythm, those who prefer to have some background noise. In all these cases the Wellness Coach can help you.
Zerobody: dry flotation and guided meditation
Dry floating. In Italian, dry flotation.
When they offered it to us, we weren’t sure what to expect. Now, after having lived the experience, we can define it one of the most restful activities ever.
But how does it work? Zerobody have the body suspended on 400 liters of hot water. Basically you position yourself on an axis which then lowers and leaves you suspended, protected by a special membrane that prevents direct contact with water but allows you to float. This means that yes, you can do it dressed.
You will find yourself wrapped in a warm embrace, free from external stimuli and with a pair of comfortable headphones that allow you to listen, even in this case, to mindfulness programs, breathing techniques or relaxing music.
Of course, this is not some kind of witchcraft. Zerobody uses the already known buoyancy technique for promote the regeneration of body and mind. In fact, during buoyancy certain brain areas are activated and stimulated an opposite physiological response to stress, with a consequent lasting improvement in mental performance. The absence of contact points, on the other hand, has a beneficial effect on the muscular system, circulation and joints.
It is an experience that we suggest you do even if we are not dealing with a homemade product. In fact, Zerobody is more suited to spas, hotels or sports centers that also want to offer some useful tools for the relaxation of athletes.