If you were to ask us what are the 10 most relevant trends which point to the Here&Now Project having to do what it does then our answer’d go a little something like this. So in no particular order…
1. Positive psychology. This is the (relatively) new and emerging school of psychology which takes the frame that mental health should be about supporting the positive qualities that we already have. This is in contrast to traditional psychology and therapy where it’s all about fixing problems or emphasising what you don’t have. Watch Martin Selgman, the pioneer of this school given this excellent TED talk
2. Mindfulness-based clinical approaches. This speaks for itself. These secular approaches to using mindfulness meditation as a way to tackle clinical mental health issues are pioneering and brilliant and enabling an ever growing research base of the effectiveness of mindfulness. Be Mindful is a good place to start to find out about this.
3. Social innovation. An important movement that looks to identify, develop and prototype practical solutions to our urgent social problems – which the UK is a real leader in. Check out Social Innovator for a great resource in this area.
4. Free. The economy of the web is emerging is one build on the principles of Free. This is important because historically the economics of meditation have also been built on generosity and free-to-access. The Here&Now Project will try to make all it’s ideas, products and services available for free. And if we can’t we’ll let you know why.
5. Wellbeing agenda. Happiness is now a big deal for government and public policy. The fact that the French President recently made a move to include a happiness indicator in his national economic indicator is pretty amazing. Here at Here&Now HQ we are particularly fond of the Wellbeing Centre at the progressive think-tank called the New Economics Foundation.
6. “Spiritual not religious”. A large proportion of people on dating websites describe themselves like this. This feels important.
7. Environmental awareness. Today’s general awareness of climate change issues is now really significant within our culture. We believe that as the case for change becomes more and more urgent, society will begin to recognise more solar panels alone wont save us but we have to change behaviour. And that means changing our minds. And that means understanding our minds. And that means meditation.
8. Neuroscience. Brain imagery is now amazing. And it’s getting better every day. So our rigorous scientific understanding of how meditation can rewire our brains for good can only support the case for meditation. Wisebrain provides one of our favourite lists of the papers on all this. Exciting.
9. New Buddhist Generation. There is a new generation of Buddhist practitioners who are young, digital and passionate about keeping asking questions about where the path of meditation can take us. If you want to see two of the best groups, check out the ID Project in NYC and BuddhistGeeks who live on the interwebs. And invariably, like us, they are committed to authentic teachings and relevant language.
10. Social technology. This is a WordPress blog. It cost us nothing to put up and we have hardly any technical skills but it looks ok. And we are having a conversation with you, socialising an idea which just a few years ago would be pretty much only available at the right pub table. Love it. And like Social by Social, we believe this power can be used for incredible good.
