Joe Martino – 11 years. The amount of time I have been observing the truth about what is going on in our world.

10 years. The amount of time I have been meditating while also learning about what is going on in our world.

Point blank: the benefits of meditation for sleep, health, lifestyle, wellness, and being able to see more clearly what’s going on in our world are undeniable.

I’ve said this for a very long time, there is no separation between what you can learn via independent media about what’s truly happening in our world and spirituality. Sure, this is a more specific statement when you are accessing conscious media, like what we do here at Collective Evolution, but in general, the world around us IS a reflection of our individual and collective consciousness. For us to properly understand our world and move past what we don’t favor, we must understand the nature of why certain things are happening in the first place. And no, it’s not because of political policies.

This is why it’s inspiring to see that more and more people are becoming friends with meditation. Trying it is half the battle!

The good news is that in the last 5 years, the number of American adults and children who practice meditation has significantly increased. This is known through the results of a questionnaire administered by the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) every 5 years. Thousands of Americans respond to questions about their health, wellness, and illness-related experiences.

Results indicate that about 14 percent of adults practiced yoga and meditation in 2017. That’s up from about 9.5 percent and 4 percent respectively compared to a similar survey fielded five years ago.

“The survey data suggest that more people are turning to mind and body approaches than ever before,” NCCIH acting director David Shurtleff said in a press release.

Kids & Teens Are Meditating More Too

Children between the ages 4 to 17 are also practicing yoga more often. Those numbers jumped from 3.1 percent in 2012 to 8.4 percent in 2017. Meditation rose by around 5% as well amongst younger people, jumping from 0.6 percent in 2012 to 5.4 percent in 2017.

What is the cause of this increase? It’s tough to say. Personally, I point to what we have pointed to over the last 10 years in reporting about news, consciousness and more here at CE: there is a shift taking place within our individual and collective consciousness. At a foundational level, we are moving from the mind to the heart a hell of a lot more often because we, as a collective, feel the old ways simply aren’t working anymore and it’s time for something different.

When there is an innate evolution of consciousness like this taking place across the planet, trends begin, increase and we eventually see what sticks. Meditation is an age-old practice and its benefits were always widely discussed. Now that people are realizing the corporate influence over science and general health care, they are turning to different methods for certain daily challenges and illnesses. Maybe not virally yet, but it’s growing.

As I have always said, if you feel our world around us is chaotic with all that is going on, there is no better reason to begin meditation. I work in media every day, combing through the different stories, drama and crazy reactions people are having to our world events. You would think it’s exhausting, negative or taxing, but it isn’t.

The reason for this is I have developed a deep meditative practice over the years that has helped me see the truth about myself, the world and us all as humans. Drama, negativity and polarity are things of the ego. The less you exist in that state, the more you see things for what they are and remain in peace. It’s powerful. Once again, this is why CE is built the way it is. neutral, conscious media that explores the deep truth behind our daily events.

We believe this form of media is truly what the world needs in a time where things are so divided, bias, misleading and emotional. This is why we created our conscious media movement campaign as well.

Here are some further details from the report regarding adults:

♦  Yoga was the most commonly used complementary health approach among U.S. adults in 2012 (9.5 percent) and 2017 (14.3 percent). The use of meditation increased more than threefold from 4.1 percent in 2012 to 14.2 percent in 2017.

♦  The use of chiropractors increased from 9.1 percent in 2012 to 10.3 percent in 2017.

♦  In 2017, women were more likely to use yoga, meditation and chiropractors in the past 12 months than men.

♦  Non-Hispanic white adults were more likely to use yoga, meditation and chiropractors than Hispanic and non-Hispanic black adults.

And here are some for children:

♦  The percentage of children aged 4-17 years who used yoga in the past 12 months increased significantly from 3.1 percent in 2012 to 8.4 percent in 2017.

♦  Meditation increased significantly from 0.6 percent in 2012 to 5.4 percent in 2017.

♦  There was no statistically significant difference in the use of a chiropractor between 2012 and 2017 (3.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively).

♦  In 2017, girls were more likely to have used yoga during the past 12 months than boys.

♦  In 2017, older children (aged 12-17 years) were more likely to have used meditation and a chiropractor in the past 12 months than younger children (aged 4-11 years).

♦  Non-Hispanic white children were more likely to have used yoga and a chiropractor in the past 12 months than non-Hispanic black children or Hispanic children.

The Takeaway

When it comes to daily life, or when you dive into understanding what is happening in our world, there are serious benefits to including meditation into this practice. I go into this in deep detail when I discuss the link between ‘conspiracies’ and spirituality in an episode of the CE podcast.

Meditation is an excellent practice to be using regularly as it not only helps in exploring our consciousness, changing our lives, making an impact on our world but also helps us to find ease and peace within what we see happening around us. From there, from the state of peace, we actually see VERY CLEARLY the actions to take in order to help make change. You will notice they never come from an aggressive, emotional place – like much of what we see happening today.

Not sure where to get started with meditation? Grab this meditation I have used for the last 10 years that I built from a number of different techniques. It’s simple, quick and effective.

SF Source Collective Evolution Nov 2018