Tired of the Gym? Try the Labyrinth

For Jennifer Sandberg, a labyrinth is more than just a maze. “It’s kind of like going to the gym, frankly,” she said, referring to the calming, meditative effect that navigating a labyrinth has on her.

Sandberg, 55, is not talking about the Greek legend of the labyrinth with a minotaur at the center or the 1980s film starring David Bowie. She and other members in a Meetup.com group of area residents regularly explore and discover real labyrinths and other “sacred spaces.”

Photo by Nick Schwellenbach

On Monday, eight of them experienced a labyrinth on the roof of the American Psychology Association and World Resources Institute foundation building just blocks from bustling Union Station and Capitol Hill. Each of them walked the labyrinth in a seemingly peaceful way.

Labyrinths have their origin in Greek mythology where Daedalus the King constructed one on the island of Crete. They are often constructed as a pattern on the ground and have long been used for private or group meditation.

This labyrinth "is part of our overall mission to create open spaces that heal the body, mind and spirit," said Mary Wyatt, executive director of TKF Foundation, in a press release. TKF was the lead sponsor of the roof labyrinth.

The founder of the group is Sue Mosher. The 55-year-old said she found the labyrinth last fall “on a lark” after talking about labyrinths to classmates in her “engaged humanities” masters program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“Within 48 hours of founding the group, 35 people had joined,” Mosher said. She had not expected such a rapid response.

Some of the group’s last outings were to the labyrinth at the National Cathedral and a day trip to the Pentagon 9/11 memorial. Mosher said the group would go back to the Pentagon memorial in the summer, but at night. In the evening, Mosher said, the experience at the memorial is very different from that during the day.

Sandberg first began regularly spending time at D.C. area labyrinths last summer. It gives her a chance to escape from everyday stress. When she first went, she admitted she thought the sight of people slowing walking through the labyrinths was “weird.” But when she began to slowly traverse the winding pathways, she began to finally focus. “Sometimes you need something different,” she said, adding that, in some ways, a labyrinth “is better than the gym.”