2018 Trends Report: Meditation
Meditation
Written by Sky King
Photo by Dave East
"When I look back at my life, I am happy to have had what most people would consider a successful life, not only in terms of business, but in my relationships and in lots of ways. More than anything else, I attribute it to meditation—partially because of the creativity, partly because of the centeredness. TM has given me an ability to put things in perspective, which has helped a lot. I think meditation has been the single biggest influence on my life.” – Ray Dalio
What it is:
Meditation is a mind and body practice that has been proven through hundreds of studies to help many physical and mental health issues. As with the earlier concept, Meditation has become increasingly popular in this over-stimulated world. Top performers across industries, have some sort of meditation practice such as Ray Dalio billionaire investor, author of the book Principals, and quoted above. There are apps like Oak and Headspace to help ease your way into guided meditation. A lot of us have heard the story of Dan Harris’ Media nightmare and the book he wrote out of it 10% Happier
n my personal life, meditation, like fasting, has given me a sense of freedom and balance from the physical setbacks I have been experiencing. There are many types of mediation, some of the most popular ones are guided meditation/ mindfulness. Oak and Headspace utilize are examples of guided meditation. There is Transcendental meditation, as mentioned by Ray Dalio above. For those who know deep in the innermost parts of their nervous system that they will never be able to sit still there is even heart rate variability meditation (HRV). HRV is a way to observe the action of the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system that controls restoration and recovery. This style is practiced by Adam Robinson and Josh Waitzkin, and has had amazing results.
Where is it in the adoption life cycle?
Early Majority
To say Meditation has been around for a long time is a severe understatement. Conservative estimations show a timeline scaling 1000’s of years. If that is true, why would it only be on the early adoption curve? Culturally, we are experiencing strange times in the United States, even though close to 70% of the United States is technically religious, we have given a lot of our cultural guidance to the Economy.
Though free markets function extremely well for innovation, they have not done a great job for valuing and understanding some of the emotional and spiritual needs we have as humans. People are becoming increasingly anxious about our society, individual lives and the roles they play within the massive US economy. Meditation offers much sought after peace and recently has managed to lose its “woo woo” stereotype and has become a practical tool for the type-a.
Why does it matter to marketers or entrepreneurs?
As the US population increasingly meditates regularly, we should expect more from them. The most amazing thing about meditation is it is slowly able to transcend some of the new age type users and it is being implemented across the most conservative companies. As a marketer or entrepreneur, especially in health and wellness, the success of meditation is a case study for your brands. The general population, who typically might be closed off to something like meditation, will be a step closer to believing in other wellness style products. As the “stuck-in-their-ways” deepen their belief in meditation, you will have greater opportunity to build your brand.