Grandpa called it cogitation.

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We celebrate World Meditation Day on May 21 every year. The holiday seeks to create awareness about meditation and its benefits, especially in our busy world of constant movement. Meditation itself is a practice that has been traced to ancient times, as far back as 3000 B.C., when it was referenced in ancient Indian texts. It also has roots in third-century China. The practice includes using techniques such as mindfulness or focusing on an object, thought, or activity to achieve an emotionally calm and stable state. Today, meditation has transcended past stereotypes and entered mainstream culture in the West.

The practice of meditation traces its roots to around 3000 B.C. However, some scholars proffer that meditation may be as old as humanity itself, stating that even the Neanderthals might have had meditative capacities. Derived from the Latin word ‘meditatum,’ meditation refers to a technique or set of techniques that individuals use to attain a heightened sense of awareness and focus on reaching a calm and stable state, mentally and emotionally.

Meditation didn’t creep into Western culture until the 20th century. In the 1960s, Harvard Medical School professor, Herbert Benson, began to study the scientific aspect of meditation, finding that people who meditated used 17% less oxygen than others. In the 1990s, meditation began to be viewed as trendy in the United States, especially with celebrities joining the trend. Now, about 9.3 million adults in the U.S. use meditation.