The World Has Changed

There’s a weird feeling I get these days because meditation and mindfulness are so popular. It’s odd living in a world where people are likely to know some form of meditation or yoga or Eastern philosophy.

When I was growing up meditation was just something that movies made fun of with dramatic leg poses and exaggerated Oms. I felt a defensive pride that I knew what meditation really was. It was something that me and my family did. It was something special to just a few people.

It’s awesome that meditation is now mainstream. It’s good for people and it’s good for the world. But there’s this little hipster part of me that’s grumbling, “I knew this before it was cool.”

It’s like falling into a parallel universe.

I think I feel particularly defensive because I’m not good about doing the meditation that I know I should. When a friend who just discovered meditation a couple years ago does it regularly it makes me feel very guilty! I want to prove that I know all about it. It certainly does inspire me to do it when I’m around them.

For the most part it’s refreshing and energizing to be able to frequently talk about meditation, mindfulness, and philosophy. There’s just a little immature part of me that wants credit for knowing about it first.