The past few years and especially the months under the shadow of the pandemic have led to increased awareness about personal health. Residents of the Middle East have also started investing in wearable devices, fitness apps and telemedicine services to keep track of the well being of their body and mind.

Sensors have enabled people to conduct a physical checkup by themselves at home, and brands like Google have equipped smart assistants with Arabic language support for mental health issues. In an environment where the digital consumer is seeking holistic wellness solutions, a Dubai-based platform has rolled out Yoga as the answer.

The app called Shala Online is the Middle East's first yoga and meditation portal which streams online lessons in Arabic and English. The service with eight instructors is designed to cover overall fitness of an individual, and also has specific lessons for tackling back-pain and for strengthening posture.

Shala's founders introduced Arabic to increase outreach in the region, and are now integrating AI into the platform for making it easy to operate. Apart from roping in more mentors to guide users through different variations of Yoga, the app is also working on adding forms of exercises which can be pulled off without any equipment.

Subscription for the meditation app costs close to sessions at any Yoga studio, and the platform is now eyeing an entry into Saudi Arabia. At the same time the startup is also building a community of users to create a virtual ecosystem, where netizens can bond over Yoga to enhance overall wellness.

Highlighting the popularity of meditation apps in the Middle East, a mental wellness platform called Mindhouse marked its arrival in UAE last year. The country also tuned into online sessions on Facebook Live for the World Yoga Day during lockdown.

As for Saudi Arabia, residents are being empowered via meditation with Arabic apps like Tawazon, which received fresh funding last year.