About Us - meditationHQ

Our purpose

To be a changemaker in making meditation a widely accepted mainstream activity.

To establish the meditationHQ Community as a household name.

Our History

Where it all began

Our community officially launched in December 2018 under the name ‘Making Meditation Mainstream’ (MMM) by Jason Partington, in response to an alarming increase in suicide rates and mental health challenges experienced in the Northern Beaches community of Sydney.

Mindfulness meditation is now recognised as an effective treatment for mental health issues like stress, anxiety and depression.

MMM, as it was colloquially known, was a proactive initiative to provide the community with free, weekly opportunities to experience the benefits of meditation and mindfulness in a very accessible way, without religious or overly spiritual overtones.

The sessions offered more than just meditation, they were a beacon of positivity during challenging times.

Making Meditation Mainstream sessions offered support and friendship, shone a light on themes like gratitude, sharing, kindness and environmental care.

Most of all, MMM provides space for belonging and affirmed an appreciation of Life.

December 2018, the first Making Meditation Mainstream flag was placed on Avalon Beach and Jason began offering weekly meditation sessions at sunrise to his local community, thus began Sunrise Saturday Sessions.

Sunrise Saturday Sessions are now accessible to the communities at 14 locations across NSW and 1 in WA.

In late 2021, Making Meditation Mainstream changed its name to ‘the Sit Community’

From 01 June 2023, the movement will be known as:

meditationHQ Community

Timeline

Dec 2018 - Avalon Beach Launch

April 2019 - North Narrabeen Launch

May 2019 - Mooloolaba Launch (closed)

Registered ACNC
not-for-profit organisation

July 2019 - North Manly & South Manly Launch

July 2019 - Wanda Beach Launch (now Oak Park)

Aug 2019 - Laing & Simmons 1 Year Corporate Sponsorship

Sep 2019 - Terrigal Beach Launch (now North Avoca)

Dec 2019 - Freshwater WA & Dixon Park Launch

Feb 2020 - Bondi South Launch

April 2020 - Ocean Beach & Dee Why Launch

May 2020 - The 24-hour Breathing Room Event

August 2020 - Brunswick Heads Launch

Oct 2020 - 28 for twenty eight campaign
raised $31500 for Lifeline Australia

Jan 2021 - Awarded Community Event of
the Year by Northern Beaches Council

April 2021 - Mentioned in Parliament by Liesl Tesch MP on International Women's Day

July 2021 - Westfield Local Hero Finalist

Aug 2021 - Joined Lululemon Here to Be
as Global Partner

Aug 2021 - Woolgoolga Launch

Oct 2021 - 28 for twenty eight campaign raised $38000
for Lifeline Australia

Nov 2021 - Mentioned in Federal Parliament by Jason Falinski MP

Jan 2022 - Bronte Beach, North Avoca & Oak Park Launch

March 2022 - Toowoon Bay Launch

June 2022 - Bathers Beach, Fremantle (WA) Launch

Sep 2022 - Soldiers Beach & Killalea Park Launch

June 2023 - Wamberal Beach Launch

Management

Lorelie Luna Ladiges

“I imagine a peaceful world full of joy & happiness. And if meditation is a source of ‘that’ happy hormone, by making meditation accessible to our communities, we are spreading happiness one meditation session at a time.”

Lorelie Luna Ladiges morphs between roles as a Practicing Alternative Therapist, a Parent’s extra set of hands as a Nanny and a Volunteer for mHQ since 2019, specializing in clearing too-hard baskets and general behind-the-scenes operations. Lorelie is based in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Hedda Koenig

My name is Hedda (or Heds), and I was lucky to be able to introduce the Sit. to WA at Fremantle, Bathers Beach in June 2022.

I love being part of this community because what’s better than connecting with yourself through breath, together with other beautiful human beings? Finding presence and stillness in this simple, yet powerful meditation by the ocean – I love feeling this collective, grounding energy that makes me feel happy and at ease. It is such a beautiful offering and I am grateful this space exists for all of us to always come back to.

AJ Mills

AJ Mills has practiced meditation since the late 1980’s beginning with Mindfulness and later travelling the world studying Transcendental, Vipassana, Meta and Yogic techniques. AJ works in Community Services and lives with her family and their 2 puppies in Newcastle. She is a qualified Meditation and Yoga teacher with a passion for sharing Peace, Love and Connection. She has been volunteering with Meditation HQ since 2020.

Jason
Partington

Program Partners

Meditation HQ and the Meditation HQ community have been blessed to have such
incredible support from individuals and organizations that powerfully align with our
vision and mission.

Prana Chai

The meditationHQ Community (previously Making Meditation Mainstream and the Sit) has had a celebrated partnership with our friends from Prana Chai. Vincent, Mario and Koray have supported our weekly sunrise sits since 2021 in supplying our 16 locations with prana chai. We are super grateful to them for their ongoing support and especially their support of our annual charity event.

Hamer and Hamer Law

Murray Hamer and his team lead by example and understand the power of meditation in community. Murray who has been through our meditation courses has supported our community initiatives since 2022, and we could not have achieved anything without their financial backing.

Glamorazzi

A relationship that stems back nearly 20 years with owner and founder, Roslyn Foo. Ros and her team have supported us in every part of our journey and evolution. We literally could not have achieved what we have achieved without their generous support, brand guidance and experience.

Basic Bananas

We are incredibly grateful for the support of Basic Banana Marketing owners Franziska Iseli and Christo Hall who have supported meditation HQ since 2021. Franziska has not only provided marketing support, branding guidance, office space and AV equipment but has also been a sponsor of our weekly community meditations with her charity Ocean Lovers.

Charity Partners

meditationHQ has had a long and strong relationship with Lifeline, particularly in the Northern Beaches, where we launched our first events.

Our affiliation with Lifeline is based upon mutual respect for how we serve the community. Lifeline provides crucial services to the community who are often reaching out in crisis moments, whereas we see ourselves being positioned well before these moments occur, proactively helping and supporting the community with practical tools, initiatives, experiences and support to hopefully avoid these situations from happening.

Head Above Water is a local Northern Beaches-based charity in Sydney that we have had a strong synergy with, since its beginning. Andrew Ward, founder of the Charity and annual swim event has raised over $500k+ for Gotcha4life, which runs mental health programs in the community.

We are proud of our partnership with them, and have supported the annual HAW 24 hour swim since 2020, with teams and funds in excess of $27000.

University Partners

We are pleased to announce that Sydney University in collaboration with UTS, will be supporting our ‘one million meditations’ event project. They will be managing the data collation process and monitoring the results in order to publish a paper later in 2024.

We are very grateful for the leadership of Dr Xanthe Lea, Lecturer at Sydney University for her involvement with the meditationHQ Community since 2021.