By FindTheBest.com
WASHINGTON — Take one look at the news, and you’re sure to get stressed. Just this week, Turkey called an emergency NATO meeting amid an airstrike campaign against ISIS, the Chinese stock market crashed, and two teenagers went missing off the coast of Florida in a fishing boat. All this turmoil is enough to make a person sweat.
But in some cities, the cure to easing anxiety might be just be around the corner … literally. In study after study, meditation has emerged as a great way to boost happiness. In a 2011 study by the Massachusetts General Hospital, scientists had 16 people participate in an eight-week meditation class. At the conclusion of the course, the researchers found that “parts of the participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.”
And though the biological, stress-relieving impacts of acupuncture remain mostly a mystery in the scientific community, The Journal of Endocrinology found in 2013 that “stress hormones were lower in rats that had received electronic acupuncture.”
This isn’t to say that upsetting global issues should be ignored, but learning mindfulness and some of these ancient alternative medical practices can help foster a healthy mental balance.
Using data from Dun & Bradstreet, FindTheHome teamed up with FindTheCompany to create a “Zen-dex” that combines the number of yoga studios and alternative medicine businesses per 10K people in each city. From these numbers, they determined the top 50 most zen cities in America.
25. Cambridge, MA
Zendex Score: 97.11 Yoga studios per 10K people: 1.7 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 1.5 Population: 105,737
24. Bellevue, WA
Zendex Score: 97.13 Yoga studios per 10K people: 0.8 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 3.1 Population: 129,209
23. Torrance, CA
Zendex Score: 97.14 Yoga studios per 10K people: 0.3 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 3.8 Population: 146,187
22. Walnut Creek, CA
Zendex Score: 97.22 Yoga studios per 10K people: 1.7 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 1.7 Population: 65,122
21. Newport Beach, CA
Zendex Score: 97.44 Yoga studios per 10K people: 1.6 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.1 Population: 86,001
20. Scottsdale, AZ
Zendex Score: 97.58 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.3 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 1.3 Population: 221,283
19. San Francisco, CA
Zendex Score: 97.69 Yoga studios per 10K people: 1.4 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.9 Population: 817,501
18. Palo Alto, CA
Zendex Score: 97.81 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.1 Population: 65,234
17. Miami Beach, FL
Zendex Score: 97.92 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.6 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 1.3 Population: 89,412
16. Boca Raton, FL
Zendex Score: 97.94 Yoga studios per 10K people: 1.7 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.8 Population: 86,671
15. Redondo Beach, CA
Zendex Score: 98.14 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.1 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.5 Population: 86,671
14. Asheville, NC
Zendex Score: 98.26 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.1 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.8 Population: 84,883
13. Delray Beach, FL
Zendex Score: 98.34 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.6 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.3 Population: 61,875
12. Bend, OR
Zendex Score: 98.41 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.4 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 2.7 Population: 78,128
11. Bethesda, MD
Zendex Score: 98.51 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 3.8 Population: 60,995
10. Portland, OR
Zendex Score: 98.53 Yoga studios per 10K people: 1.8 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 4 Population: 594,687
9. Seattle, WA
Zendex Score: 98.58 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.3 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 3.4 Population: 624,681
8. Kirkland, WA
Zendex Score: 98.66 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.6 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 3 Population: 75,835
7. Santa Barbara, CA
Zendex Score: 98.87 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.6 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 4 Population: 89,062
6. Berkeley, CA
Zendex Score: 98.92 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 5.2 Population: 114,037
5. Santa Fe, NM
Zendex Score: 98.99 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 5.5 Population: 68,800
4. Encinitas, CA
Zendex Score: 99.34 Yoga studios per 10K people: 3.8 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 5.8 Population: 60,321
3. Santa Cruz, CA
Zendex Score: 99.43 Yoga studios per 10K people: 2.9 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 7.8 Population: 61,245
2. Santa Monica, CA
Zendex Score: 99.57 Yoga studios per 10K people: 4.3 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 7.7 Population: 90,752
1. Boulder, CO
Zendex Score: 99.61 Yoga studios per 10K people: 4.2 Alternative medicine clinics per 10K people: 8.8 Population: 100,363
