Do you read Bill Gates' blog, Gatesnotes? A recent post titled, “Why I’m into mediation,” received quite a bit of media attention. In the post, Gates reveals that after years of avoiding meditation—thinking it was, “a woo-woo thing tied somehow to reincarnation”—he recently started to practice the mindfulness technique. He and his wife, Melinda, now meditate two or three times a week for about 10 minutes each time. “It’s a great tool for improving my focus,” says the self-made billionaire and Microsoft co-founder.
Gates isn't the only one benefiting from meditating regularly. More and more Americans are, too. Data from a 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found that U.S. adults’ use of meditation more than tripled between 2012 and 2017 (from 4.1 percent to 14.2 percent). The use of meditation by U.S. children (aged 4 to 17 years) also increased significantly (from 0.6 percent in 2012 to 5.4 percent in 2017).