Meditation is growing more and more popular in the Western World, to the point where Venture Capitalists and Angels in Silicon Valley are investing in meditation apps. Meditation for relaxation, creativity, self improvement and beyond is becoming more than just an Eastern practice, it’s becoming Western profit!
VCs and Angels
Headspace has raised over $75m, and Calm has completed a $0.5m seed round and an undisclosed Venture Capital round. If you’re like me, you find it both weird and kind of cool that capitalists are validating meditation. Ever thought you’d see the day? Meditation for the masses!
Famous People Who Meditate
Beyond the for-profit crowd, people like Tim Ferriss and Sam Harris are helping popularize the practice and showcase it as a performance enhancer rather than a forget-your-worries-and-be-free-as-a-wet-noodle tool. In Tim Ferriss’ 2016 Tools of Titans release – A New York Times #1 Bestseller (affiliate link… if you buy I earn a small piece) – Tim writes that 80% of the HIGH-performing men and women interviewed in the book had a meditation habit. That is a HUGE data point.
People all across the social spectrum are getting into meditation; comedians who meditate like Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfield and Joe Rogan; athletes who meditate like LeBron James and Derek Jeter; entrepreneurs who meditate like Marc Benioff and Arianna Huffington. The list goes on and on and on…
This popularization of meditation is a good thing, I think. We keep keep our minds and bodies wound up TIGHT in this Western World. We move fast and rarely slow down to consider our direction. We rarely slow down to consider our habits or the ways we react to people. We rarely release our tight grip on the steering wheel, and we rarely relax enough to allow for positive metabolism of both acute and chronic stress.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation offers relief for this cracked-out, stressed-out, fast-moving state. Meditation is relaxation. Meditation is a soothing CBD balm for the mind. Meditation is like a warm bath for your brain. It’s like adding a speed bump to the mind-street, asking your mind and body to slow down and viewing/editing your reactions before reacting.
Personal Experiments with Meditation
I’ve been in and out of meditation, having first started experimenting back in 2011. I would experiment with small 2 minute sessions; sort of like my own “smoke break.” I noticed a little more calm and a lot more creativity from these small sessions.
Fast forward to today, May 26th, 2018, I’m back at it, trying to string together 7 days of meditating 10 minutes each day.
Yesterday – Friday – was my first time back on the horse, and I gotta tell you it went GREAT. Now, don’t get me wrong, 10 minutes is tough. You spend the first 5 minutes calming your mind and then the last 5 minutes of your meditation wondering when this thing is going to end. The temptation to look at your timer is EXTREME, but I was able to settle into my body and breath and patiently wait.
In the afterglow – during my Friday evening – I noticed an increased ability to communicate. I was able to string together coherent thoughts and sentences in a way that is rare for me. My powers of metaphor were increased. I found an increased ability to gather thoughts and prepare a rebuttal during a debate while still listening to the other person’s point of view. It was amazing. I was able to quickly sink back into tension-relieving humor even when I was cresting the waves of disagreement with another individual. It was strange and weird and awesome.
So I march on to day 2 with excitement for what lies inside me. The potential of the diamond underneath has been slightly revealed. Meditation is here to stay for me, I think, so long as I can discipline my mind and body to sit still for 10 minutes and breath, and just Be.
Have you experimented with meditation? What have you observed? I’d love to hear about your experiences. Drop me a comment below and let’s talk!