Is meditation the new mainstream?

Meditation’s popularity is spreading worldwide as more people discover its positive impact on the body and mind health. It’s no longer limited to isolated monks and even has become a very recommended morning or night routine by famous people and social media influencers.

How did meditation start?

The word meditation stems from meditatum, a Latin term that means “ to ponder”.

Trying to track how old is meditation is more complex than you might think. Davanger mentioned that the practice of meditation might be as old as humanity itself. Many schools of thought have placed the origin of meditation within a structured set of practices and techniques based on artifacts and references in eastern countries. India is one of the oldest written records from around 1500 BCE. Many of these records come from the Hindu traditions and Buddhist scriptures and text dating back to a few hundred BC. Also, the early references of meditation are linked to the Daoist, Laozi, an ancient Chinese philosopher, and his writings.

In conclusion, no one knows when meditation has officially started. However, it is very needed in such a fast raced century where everyone is running faster in order to stay in place. Meditation is above and beyond any religious affiliations as it seems to be a core part of being human.

Why meditating?

According to Michael de Montaigne a French philosopher “the greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself”.

Most of the time I do speak to myself more than I speak to other people. Even though I might look so calm from the outside I’m a volcano of inner thoughts and conversations and most of those thoughts remain silent and hidden.

Thoughts are extremely powerful, contagious, and impactfully your life decisions. If we don’t learn how to control our thoughts it will eventually control us. Ignoring our thoughts will eventually lead us to more serious circumstances too.

If you were born in a healthy family or in a toxic family, if your parents gaslighted you or tried so hard to understand you, we can’t survive our childhood period without traumas. Traumas might differ from a person to another however it’s in the childhood phase that we start to create our talkative friendo, that character who never stop talking to us, analyzing events in our life, developing feelings for people based on how they make them feel when they are around, questioning everything, repeating the other people’s conversations and taking sides. This talkative friendo adores living in our minds and whenever their long non-stop speeches start to be annoying and insisting, we tend to shut it up by overworking, alcohol, sex, overthinking things, over moving, etc… Unfortunately, this friendo won’t simply go away. On the opposite, they’ll grow more insistent and severe if we try to shut them up or numb them. Most of the time, they’ll turn into the background vocals that exhausts us and drain our energy without notice.

My solution for this talkative friendo is to simply be aware of what they’re saying and observing if their words are my own proper opinion or if it’s a collection of other people’s. Well, maybe using the word simply describing a non-simple practice is not a good choice but with practice and discipline, this exercise will become simpler day after day.

Meditation is a very good practice to communicate with your inner thoughts than to numb them by trying to avoid them and shutting them down. Observing your thoughts is the strongest and most important step to discover what is yours and what’s not. Meditation will help you to ground yourself and focus on the now moment and so not getting lost in your thoughts. Calming the mind will disidentify you from your overthinking and anxiety and help you be more relaxed and awake. Focusing on your breathing for a specific period while relaxing your body will help you achieve a peaceful time with yourself and therefore entering into a calming phase when you are able to let go of the thoughts that don’t make you feel comfortable and let go of being tense. It’s being in control of your thoughts so it won’t consume you. It’s listening to your thoughts as an outsider and don’t let it fool you. Our thoughts are so strong, if we don’t learn how to control them they’ll end by enslaving us. Controlling, in this case, is not avoiding or numbing our thoughts. It’s fully listening to them without serving them tea. It’s understanding them, accepting them, and let them go. We can’t achieve this by meditation only, however, meditation is an important daily practice to put us in the now and help us be conscious of the present moment. It helps us detaching from our inner struggles and living a peaceful moment to calm down our friendo and see the bigger picture with no anxiety or fear.

I learned from meditation that controlling my thoughts was not the hardest thing I can do. It was the will to move on and not being stuck analyzing the past or worrying about the future. I learned that consuming other people’s opinions of myself is an energy drainer. As I learned that it’s okay if I failed to stay calm and relaxed, if my body was tense and not able to chill, if my breathing was trembling and that friendo was fooling me by talking and talking while I couldn’t calm them down and enjoy the emptiness of the moment. It’s okay if you couldn’t focus on your breathing and were drown in your thoughts. If you keep on trying to get back to the meditating state but found yourself lost in your thoughts. If your friendo kept on throwing you ideas and thoughts about past memories, your to-do list, your future worries, and scenarios that never happened at all.

You can’t fail or succeed a meditation. It’s not an exam, it’s not a duty or an obligation. The meditation period is a way to be awake. The fact that you noticed you’re lost in thoughts and try to get back into the calming mode is itself very great progress. Our world is based on thoughts and opinions so detaching from it is challenging indeed but worth the try because meditation is a self-discovery journey full of up and down. It is a way to detach from the fast running mode and remember to breathe.

So if you’re looking for a reason to try meditating, here’s a list of the most benefits of meditation:

1 - reduce stress

To be in the now and detach from daily responsibility is a very efficient way to remain calm.

2- controls anxiety

Our anxiety is basically caused by our inner fear of the future. Focusing on the present moment and detach from time for a few minutes is beneficial to reduce anxiety.

3 -promotes emotional health

Meditation is a good opportunity to connect with the self and heal our emotional body.

4 -enhances self-awareness

Focusing on your own breath is an efficient way to feel your body, calm your mind, and be aware of the soul.

5 -lengthens attention span

Remember the friendo? during meditation, this friendo will play tricks on you. Being aware and attentive to not be dragged to join their conversation is a wonderful training of deep focus.

and other benefits like:

6 may reduce age-related memory loss
7 can generate kindness
8 may help fight addiction
9 improves sleep
10 helps control pain
11 can decrease blood pressure
12 you can meditate anywhere

Scrolling on the internet, it’s obvious that meditation is being the new mainstream. You can find thousands of blogs explaining it and listen to many popular artists, the business faces, social media influencers mentioning its benefits whether from a spiritual or scientific perspective.
However, the mainstream doesn’t have to be always a negative trait. Maybe people are finally done surviving a fast race life conditioned by productivity and finances and they became more into discovering themselves and start living a life of balance.

I’m curious to know what you think below in the comment section.