Illustration of someone meditating.
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Pixabay
The health crisis has pushed many French people into the arms of meditation, which can be practiced alone or with an application, in a group or with their children.
This fashionable well-being practice was already enjoying a certain popularity.
But the anguish of recent months, the confinement and the desire to take care of oneself, in particular of one's mind, have amplified the phenomenon.
Some have developed original techniques, in particular haikus, a practice offered on the Petit Bambou application.
"Crisis of calm", "to be here and now", "to let thoughts pass like clouds" ... If this kind of expression does not make you burst out laughing, it is because you are familiar with the vocabulary of meditation .
A practice which aims to find a little calm, therefore, to step back and benevolence through bodily sensations and breathing, in order to stop the endless race of thoughts.
Useful in these times when anxiety is spreading and prospects are lacking.
While more and more French people have been interested in meditation in recent years, the Covid-19 crisis, with its uncertainties, anxieties, isolation and boredom, seems to have been a trigger for many.
Meditation apps have won over
Books on this practice are selling like hot cakes (in particular
Calm and attentive like a frog
for children), collective meditation sessions have flourished on the Web during confinements ... And even the streaming giant Netflix offers, since the 1st January 2021, a documentary on meditation, the Headspace Meditation Guide, to de-stress between two serial episodes ... Petit Bambou, an application which has 7 million followers, experienced a "confinement effect".
“We went from 5,000 new users per day to 15,000 in March 2020,” explains Benjamin Blasco, its co-founder.
After that, it stabilized at 8,000 to 9,000 users per day.
"
But after having tested the discovery sessions or even paid for the subscription, are the French really using it outside of confinement?
If not all apprentices meditate every day, the test is often transformed.
“On February 7, 2020, we had 47,000 completed sessions.
On February 11, 2021, 62,000 ”, continues Benjamin Blasco.
Same story for the Mind app: its daily use has more than doubled between February 1, 2020 and February 1, 2021.
And meditation is not only practiced alone in his living room, in the lotus, with his laptop.
“Our business activity has increased tenfold between summer 2020 and the start of 2021,” continues the co-founder of Petit bambou.
Many staff and Human Resources representatives are looking for solutions in distance, less visual and more audio, to help people manage anxiety, the constraints of teleworking… ”Others have chosen to test meditation with their children, especially when it was necessary to occupy them all day by keeping them indoors as much as possible.
A little girl meditating.
- SUPERSTOCK / SUPERSTOCK / SIPA
"Calm your mind in the face of the current stressful situation"
Why such enthusiasm?
First for its practicality.
“Meditating with a mobile application remains one of the (rare) activities that can be done without particular constraints,” suggests Julien Delon, co-founder of Mind.
For Benjamin Blasco, this health crisis invited us to review our priorities, to take back time, to come back to ourselves.
“People got 'connected' to sports during this time, and also realized that they weren't taking enough care of their minds.
However, meditation plays a bit the role of streching for the brain.
"
What Pierre, 55, confirms.
He had read books on the subject and heard about meditation without ever taking the plunge.
The first confinement encouraged him to do so.
“I have been actively practicing mindfulness meditation for several months,” confides this Internet user who answered our call for testimony.
It is undeniably linked to the health situation (confinement, teleworking, curfew).
This allows you to calm your mind in the face of the current stressful situation and to deepen certain concepts (letting go, empathy, fear, self-confidence…).
"
"There has been a growing interest for twenty years in this secular meditation popularized by Christophe André, and studies have shown its benefits against heart disease, diabetes, stress", adds Pascale Senk, author of books on meditation.
In March 2020, according to her, there was a conjunction of two factors: “an appetite from people to find a form of appeasement and technical means to do so.
“Because thanks to Zoom, Teams and other meetings on Facebook, some, lacking a collective, could meditate together.
For Benjamin Blasco, meditation also goes against the demands of performance and speed of society.
"There is no false promise, we do not say 'take meditation as a suppository, you will get better!'
The fact that it is only a tool with no objective to achieve, in this period when we are asked for a lot of exploits - managing children, the house, work - having a time when we do nothing, we are stop, this is important.
Especially since there is no wrong way to meditate… ”What appreciates Mireille, 61, who tasted this practice during the second confinement.
“I was scared at the idea of still being alone with myself.
Some sessions are more difficult than others, but I hang in there and I know it's a support, a moment for me.
"
Meditate with haikus
Pascale Senk has developed an original concept of creative meditations: haikus.
Very brief poems evoking the seasons, nature, the passing of time… “I had difficulty meditating alone in front of the wall,” she confides.
Haiku is the literary side of Zen meditation.
It became a passion, I saw the benefits for myself.
"
After having published
L'Effet haïku
in 2016, she offers Petit bambou sessions to discover the experience.
“I had done ten meditations in January 2020. In May, they asked me for twelve more.
One more proof that meditation, even in its unrecognized forms, has taken off.
Since the health crisis, Pascale Senk has also offered companies initiation workshops in creative meditation.
“And it's taking off, I have more and more requests!” She says.
It is a form of meditative poetry that allows people to express their feelings and share them.
"
Why this growing interest?
For her, this specific form of meditation invites “to reconnect with life, beauty, seasons and funny, unexpected situations.
It helps us to find in our daily life a thousand remarkable little things, a cat that stretches, the plant that unfolds ... When you are locked in your home, it's very powerful.
"
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