Best Places in San Francisco for Seniors to Find Their Bliss

Meditation and Mindfulness: Become fully present and stress-free by practicing these centuries-old techniques for just a few minutes each day. San Francisco has an abundance of places and spaces to help you get started or keep you involved.

Stress has an unwelcome way of impacting everyone’s lives, including seniors. The causes may vary – from everyday annoyances to major events – but over time, elevated stress hormones can affect your health, your sleep and your memory. In fact, chronic stress has a more significant impact on older adults than on younger adults, according to a study published by the National Institutes of Health. This includes insomnia, late life depression, anxiety, cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

To help alleviate stress and its negative effects, older adults should follow general good health recommendations, such as eating well, staying hydrated, exercising and getting enough sleep. But another important step for you to consider is meditation, engaging in deep breathing, positive visualization and other mindfulness practices. Although it’s currently a fast-growing trend, meditation is a centuries-old practice that helps quiet the mind and improve overall well-being.

San Francisco, of course, has an abundance of places for seniors to learn or practice this stress-relieving activity, ranging from meditation retreats and centers to classes and outdoor spaces. There’s no better time than the present to improve your quality of life with mindful meditation. Here are some resources to start you on the path.

Two iconic San Francisco meditation centers provide sanctuaries for older adults looking to explore meditation techniques and mindfulness.

San Francisco Zen Center: Located near the Civic Center, Beginner’s Mind Temple (City Center) was established in 1969 by Shunryu Suzuki as a training center in the Soto Zen tradition. It offers meditation sittings for all experience levels, plus several in-person meditation instructions for beginners. (You can also access its archive of recorded instruction sessions for beginners on the website.) This newly renovated center also owns Green Gulch Farm, a temple, meditation center and working farm in nearby Marin County, and Tassajara, a monastery and retreat center in the Ventana Wilderness inland from Big Sur.

Shambhala Meditation Center: Sharing space at The Center for Spiritual Living in the West Portal neighborhood, this venerable community-focused center provides regular dharma talks and a monthly calendar of meditation practices that are free and open to the public, for beginners and long-time meditators (also online). They practice and teach mindfulness awareness meditation as it has existed for the past 2,500 years. Instruction is available before the meditation practice begins.

San Francisco offers various meditation and mindfulness classes tailored for older adults, some combined with gentle physical activity.

YMCA San Francisco: The first of its kind in the U.S. (1853), San Francisco’s YMCA and its branches provide seniors with various meditation and mindfulness opportunities in a supportive setting. These range from Chair Yoga, which pairs mindfulness and movement at the Stonestown location, to a meditation period following a Hatha Yoga class at the Embarcadero.

Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center: San Francisco’s largest HMO, Kaiser Permanente holds a series of online MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) classes. They run for six weeks, with a two-hour weekly class and a four-hour retreat on a Saturday. The programs involve mindfulness meditation and gentle movement, and are based on the Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD model. This series is open to the public (non-Kaiser members pay a slightly higher fee); no referral is required.

University of California San Francisco, Osher Center for Integrative Health: This highly regarded center offers an eight-week, online program that focuses on sitting meditation, body awareness and mindful movement. Its goal is to increase attention, concentration, performance and quality of life, also following the Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD model. The course includes eight weekly sessions and one day-long retreat (Saturday or Sunday).

It’s no surprise that San Francisco offers numerous outdoor spaces and unexpected places for seniors to meditate. Here are a few that offer beauty as well as tranquility for your practice.

Golden Gate Park: Sprawling over 1,071 acres, Golden Gate Park is a wonderland of opportunities for meditating.

o   Japanese Tea Garden: Opened in 1894, this serene Japanese garden is filled with maple and cherry trees, small ponds and paths, and has a traditional tea house. Visitors are, generally, respectfully quiet, and there are many alcoves with benches to sit and meditate. The Dry Landscape Garden (a Zen garden) was designed to represent hills, mountains and running water, and its gravel squares (not to be stepped on) are intended to inspire meditation.

o   Shakespeare Garden: Enter its arched gate and you’ll step into a lesser- known but lovely garden. Hundreds of flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s works blossom here, including daisies, poppies, roses and violets (depending on the season). Springtime, especially April when the crabapple trees flower along the garden’s center, is the best time to visit. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and enjoy all the scents in the garden. Then continue your practice.

o   San Francisco Botanical Garden: With 55 acres of landscaped greens, open spaces, 8,000 different kinds of plants, several paths and numerous benches, this park-within-a-park has countless places to practice sitting or walking meditation. Check out the map to help you decide which area suits you best.

Yerba Buena Gardens: Yerba Buena Gardens is an oasis in the middle of downtown, its centerpiece the five-acre Great Lawn. Older adults looking for contemplative spaces will find several small gardens tucked into the lush landscape, including the Butterfly Garden and Reflection Garden. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial features a stunning waterfall and shimmering glass panels inscribed with his inspiring words, a peaceful and reflective space.

Grace Cathedral Labyrinths: An imposing stained-glass palace on the crest of Nob Hill, Grace Cathedral is an unexpected place to find a labyrinth. In fact, this progressive-minded church has two Chartres-style labyrinths (one indoors and one outdoors) that are part of its non-denominational programs. Both are open to the public ( indoors during certain visiting hours; the outdoors is open 24/7). The two paths are walking meditations and support the practice of mindfulness in a  welcoming, pristine silence.

Meditation and mindfulness are proven stress-relievers for seniors that enhance your mental clarity, emotional well-being and physical health. Whether you choose a structured retreat, a local class or your own private space in a city park or garden, you’re taking an important step to improve your quality of life.