“The Three Minutes That Changed My Life”
With three young kids and a high-profile career in fashion that required significant travel, Suze Yalof Schwartz was firing on all cylinders, but success often comes with stress, and the stress was taking its toll. During a business trip to New York, Suze was feeling the effects of her whirlwind pace and called her mother-in-law, a psychotherapist, for some much-needed wisdom. Her mother-in-law offered seven succinct words of advice, “You need to calm down and breathe.” This simple sentence would lead to a career change for Suze and an opportunity for so many more to address the stress, pain, and panic attacks that seem endemic to life in the 21st Century.
While her mother-in-law taught her to breathe, the options for pursuing meditation were limited. It was complicated and expensive. During her decades working with prominent fashion magazines like Marie Claire and Glamour, as well as creating makeovers on Good Morning America and TODAY, Suze developed a keen sense of what people want and sometimes need. The confidence she developed in that role helped her pitch her husband on what was originally conceived as “The Dry Bar for Meditation”, a drop-in studio where someone could reset and develop the tools to take control of his/her life. Despite her persuasive argument, Suze’s husband had one request…learn how to meditate first. Needless to say, she did and the rest is UNPLUG history.
The self-funded business started with a studio in Los Angeles and has grown to include the Four Pillars of Unplug:
1. The Studio
Suze has brought UNPLUG to well-known companies like Google, YouTube, McDonald’s, and the NFL, to name a few and her former employer, Condé Nast offers the app to its employees. When asked if she considers herself a guru or employs gurus, Suze responds with “there are no gurus. Instead, we bring ‘the best of’ to the practice, making it secular and simple. UNPLUG looks for teachers with passion, personality, and wisdom to share.” During corporate training, Suze teaches the introductory seminar entitled “Everything You Need to Know About Meditation in 30 Minutes.” From there, participants engage in sound baths, do breathwork, hypnotherapy, and guided meditation, among other mindful practices.
As the founder of Unplug, Suze practices what she preaches. She does not even get out of bed without meditating first thing in the morning. As a matter of fact, she practices “beditation,” a term coined by @davidji, doing 10 minutes of meditation before she even gets out of bed. When asked what her ideal day entails, Suze is quick to answer with her routine:
- Wake Up
- Meditate
- Workout for 15-20 minutes
- Drink a Green Smoothie
- Journal
- Start My Day
These six easy steps are the key to maintaining her mental and physical well-being. The goal of UNPLUG is to help people find their recipe for an ideal day. Suze believes that we all have the tools to manage our stress, we just don’t always know what they are.
The business has enjoyed unprecedented success and has so much more on the horizon. First and foremost, Suze is pursuing a phygital strategy – bringing the physical into the digital world. The typical life journey of an UNPLUG acolyte,
1. Start with a drop-in class at the LA based studio.
2. Use the app when they can’t experience it in person.
3. Read Unplug: A Simple Guide to Meditation for Busy Skeptics and Modern Soul Seekers by Suze Yalof and Debra Goldstein
4. Deepen their practice through Teacher Training
Many devotees pursue teacher training, not to lead a class, but to have ALL the tools in their pocket for the rest of their life. The Six Week, 42-day program is a deep dive that can be done on-line from anywhere in the world. All the spokes of the UNLUG wheel are in place to encourage more people to meditate, because Suze truly believes that “The more people meditate, the better the world will be.”
As she looks to the future, Suze is focused on increasing awareness around the app and training more teachers, UNPLUG has trained 260 meditation teachers to date. “I am most proud of the lives that we have impacted at UNPLUG. I love watching them spread their wings and fly.” Follow Unplug on instagram @unplugmeditation.
Since we spoke to Suze, the Palisades fire has taken her home and that of many of the incredible healers that she works with. As one would expect, Suze is helping others and focusing on the important things, the safety of her family and loved ones, during these trying times. In light of the inordinate stress so many are facing at this time, UNPLUG is offering free three month access to their app to start developing your tools for a better day.
