Accessing Meditation
For years, my grandfather has urged me at every opportunity to take up meditation. Quite honestly, until recently I had been adamant that it was an utter waste of time; every time I would knock on my grandfather’s door, he would be meditating. He’d be sitting in his armchair in silence, often up to eight hours at a time with such intense concentration that no noise I made would deter him from his focus. It will come to no one’s surprise that my grandfather is an incredibly spiritual man. Growing up in a Hindu household, I always thought meditation was only possible if I had an intense connection to my spiritual Hindu side, and to be frank until this year I simply lacked the drive or any knowledge about it. But fundamentally, meditation simply is the act of training one’s brain to have awareness and attention to ultimately achieve a clearer and calmer state of being.
Given my cultural connection to the practice, until this year I was utterly unaware of just how westernized meditation has become. Since Yoga culture and traditional Hindu meditation practices journeyed to the Americas in the early twentieth century by Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda, many of Hollywood’s stars have taken to meditation over the years in attempts to cope with the high pressure of celebrity status, many of whom immersed themselves in the culture during the 60s and 70s. Only select cities hosted meditation studios, else people had to travel to Asia to experience meditation culture; it was quite inaccessible.
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, though, meditation’s commercialisation has verifiably skyrocketed. In our current era, one must operate at maximum efficiency at all times, and anything else simply seems inadequate. In a world where capital gain seems to be the utmost priority at all times, employees could easily be viewed as expendable; burnout is just too easy to reach. Since 1980, mental health in the United States has trended steadily on a decline.
Luckily, we live in a digital age where we can access any part of the world’s culture, including meditation, whenever we wish. We need not look further than the AppStore of our devices: take Headspace, for example. Initiated by a British Sports Science student turned Buddhist monk, Andy Puddicombe, Headspace is one of the world’s most popular meditation and mindfulness apps with over 70 million downloads to date. Puddicombe has made accessible many of the teachings he learned as a Buddhist monk in the Indian Himalayas to the general public, at a level that is easy to understand and does not feel alienating. He has chosen certain aspects of Hindu and Buddhist teachings and culture, almost appropriating (and I use that term loosely, as the cultural confusion is a lot to unpack) the practice for the purpose of mental healing. With multiple instructors and meditations for every need listed as recordings on the Headspace app for anyone who wishes to engage, Puddicombe allows anyone to take control of their mental health. Headspace has even launched a Netflix show to introduce its teachings, and it has made its service free to the unemployed. Though much of Hinduism and Buddhism’s teaching centres around the oneness and freedom of mind and body — essentially what the practice of meditation seeks to achieve — Puddicombe commercialised the practice, and as a result appealed largely to the corporate environment whose workforce sorely needed meditation. Popularising meditation as a stress reliever and a self-help method, entrepreneurs with background in the culture have attracted the leaders of the corporate world.
Many of the world’s biggest companies now host ‘corporate meditations’ and encourage, if not require, employees to take at least one 30-minute meditation break per day. Apple, whose founder, Steve Jobs, meditated in his time, now has daily meditation breaks, on-site yoga and meditation classes, and a meditation room. Google, too, offers meditation spaces and courses, and Starbucks even provides all employees with free Headspace memberships. To improve work life, efficiency, and creativity, companies have recognised and employed the power of meditation and have reaped from its commercialisation in America.
According to Headspace’s extensive list of benefits, meditation has been scientifically proven to:
o Relieve stress.
o Improve focus.
o Improve mood.
o Mediate aggression.
o Improve self-compassion and image.
o Increase work efficiency.
o Help to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
o Help to manage physical pain.
o Improve sleep.
o Enhance cognitive performance.
But further, it really seems to us function at our best, no matter what our life entails; in America, it’s just upholding our capitalist society apparently.
Sources:
