It is not the mind that has changed. Why we can no longer meditate in the digital age and what can be done?

More and more people think they “can't meditate” because their minds are too busy. Specialists show, however, that the problem is not the thoughts, but the digital culture that does not leave us a single second of time for ourselves.

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“The digital environment itself is not necessarily problematic. What I would define as worrying, however, is the fact that we live in a content society, where absolutely any micro-event becomes content. Natural probabilities become content, a man on the other side of the globe filming a get ready with me becomes content, movies and series become consumed on demand hours at a time. Apps are made to run on auto-fire and never stop,” explains for “Adevărul” Alex Dincovici, associate lecturer at SNSPA and the University of Bucharest.

He notes that attention-grabbing mechanisms are not limited to screens. “It's not just phones that are sources of entertainment, but also watches, bracelets and the multitude of sensors, each more ambitious and with greater haptic ambitions.” In such a world, a “non-pause content”, the question that naturally arises is what it means to be able to sit with your own thoughts.

Meditation, transformed into an economic tool

Alex Dincovici points out that once brought into Western culture, meditation inevitably transforms. “They take on economic value. There is already a market for retreats and meditation and many other related practices. They all promise a kind of disconnection from the world, and by implication capitalism, in exchange for resources of time and money that few people really have.”

In this landscape, meditation comes to be treated as a tool for well-being, stress management or even productivity, a paradox for a tradition that has historically been about contemplation, attention and presence.

“Any contemplation practice has benefits”

Asked to what extent meditation can be a coping mechanism for systemic stress, in a world of multitasking and cognitive overload, he states:
“I think any kind of contemplative practice has its own benefits, which is why we find it in so many forms today. We all have inner worlds, it doesn't hurt to try to tap into them every now and then, whether we do it to empty it or to fill it up.”

A new direction in the specialized literature looks at meditation as a tool not only for mental health, but also for sustainable behavior. More specifically, in a material published in Forbes, Felicia Jackson recently analyzed how climate anxiety, which has increased dramatically in recent years, influences people's decisions and the way they relate to the future. Amid the information overload and social pressure generated by the climate crisis, the idea emerges that short meditation practices can provide cognitive clarity and reduce emotional reactivity, two essential elements for making coherent decisions.

In the material, she mentions the “Miracle of Mind” app, developed by an international group of volunteers from the Isha Foundation and coordinated by Sadhguru. The app offers a structured meditation practice of just seven minutes, designed to support emotional resilience and how people manage eco-anxiety. The pace at which it was adopted (over a million downloads within 15 hours of publication) suggests a real need for digital wellbeing tools in a context where social media amplifies stress and fragmented attention.

“If people think under the pressure of anxiety, they make poor decisions”

In an interview quoted by Forbes, Sadhguru says that meditation “create space between you and your own body and mind” thereby facilitating a form of clarity. “When you gain even a little distance from these aspects of yourself, suffering (physical and mental) begins to dissolve.” Regular practice, even in small amounts, is associated with increased alpha waves, involved in relaxation and mental clarity. Some studies show that meditation can also progressively change brain chemistry, supporting emotional resilience.

It is the economic data cited in the analysis, however, that raises important questions about the impact of eco-anxiety. In the US, mental health costs have reached $477 billion annually, and estimates suggest that by 2040 the financial burden could exceed $14 trillion if systemic interventions are lacking. In the UK, eco-anxiety is already affecting young people's educational and career decisions. From this perspective, the idea of ​​meditation as a practice of cognitive clarification has real social stakes.

Sadhguru argues that “if people think under the pressure of anxiety, they make poor decisions, not just for themselves, but for society.” Clarity thus becomes a resource for long-term choices: responsible consumption, ethical leadership, coherent public policies.

In other words, under pressure, the natural tendency is to turn to quick, convenient, rarely sustainable solutions. Meditation reduces this reactivity, providing a window of reflection and a better ability to plan. Harvard Medical School studies cited in the article show that meditation strengthens the prefrontal cortex, responsible for rational thinking, impulse control and strategic planning.

Another central element in Felicia Jackson's analysis concerns the role of meditation in protecting people from misinformation. People who meditate are less likely to be swayed by fake news, in part because meditation increases the capacity for deliberate analysis.

A Harvard professor, Dr. Balachundhar Subramaniam, points out that meditation brings “better sleep, emotional resilience and more stable social relationships”, arguing that digital applications can be a real support in the context of massive phone usage. Some European companies are already testing mindfulness programs in the area of ​​social responsibility, sometimes offering incentives to employees for consistent practice.

In a world where information pressure undermines the ability to make decisions, a few minutes of meditation can provide not only a decrease in stress, but also the premises for sustainable choices, individual and collective. “If the mind is clear, you can act rightly for yourself, for society and for the planet.” says Sadhguru.