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Even before the global pandemic the Mindfulness industry in the West was enjoying steadily increasing success. Covid-19 lockdowns only made it more popular. Everyone just wanted to stay as sane as possible. Who could blame them? The entire lockdown phase were more than a little stressful even for the most chilled out people.
The only real problem with all the mindfulness stuff lies in the fact that the actual effectiveness of the techniques haven’t been rigorously tested in a research setting. There are lots of reasons why. A recent review by researchers at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology explores the various research domains that study mindfulness and the conceptual and operational definitions in each domain.
There are on-going debates about mindfulness that are stifling academic research. There is no consensus regarding the meanings of important words. In turn, the divergent and conflated meanings limit deeper investigation. For example, interventions in one practice may not be useful in other contexts because meaning is not transferred between settings.
The researchers’ study reviewed mindfulness classifications and a “comparative content mapping of mindfulness studies” spanning six years (2015- 2021).
Their results showed three common areas in mindfulness classifications: short-term effects of mindfulness, long-term effects of mindfulness, and mindfulness practices. In addition, they showed four domains of mindfulness research: mental health, behavioral change, cognitive neuroscience, and ethical mindfulness. They identified serious deficiencies in the operational definitions of mindfulness that are not articulated clearly in these domains. Conceptual and operational definitions in the ‘ethical mindfulness’ domain are lacking. The authors of the paper concluded that more work needs to be done clarifying simple terms before any meaningful research can be conducted.
The business of mindfulness is fast becoming a pillar of the $4.5T wellness industry. The US meditation industry is now worth $1B. A quick look at the Headspace app’s performance year-on-year paints a clear picture. Customers and investors are pumping more and more money into the industry.
Headspace revenue
| Year | Revenue |
| 2016 | $30 million |
| 2017 | $40 million |
| 2018 | $60 million |
| 2019 | $100 million |
Sources: HW, Wanderlust, Fortune, NPR
Headspace funding
| Year | Funding |
| 2015 | $38 million |
| 2017 | $75 million |
| 2020 | $215 million |
Source: Crunchbase
Headspace valuation
| Year | Valuation |
| 2014 | $50 million |
| 2017 | $250 million |
| 2018 | $320 million |
Note: Headspace did not publicise its valuation for its two funding rounds in 2020, perhaps due to not reaching ‘unicorn’ status as its rival Calm did in 2019.
Sources: The Times, Forbes, TechCrunch
Headspace subscribers
| Year | Subscribers |
| 2017 | 0.4 million |
| 2018 | 1 million |
| 2020 | 2 million |
Sources: Forbes, TechCrunch, Headspace
Headspace commercial customers
| Year | Commercial customers |
| 2018 | 300 |
| 2020 | 600 |
Note: Commercial customers include Google, LinkedIn, Starbucks and Adobe. Businesses subsidise Headspace premium for their employees, so one customer could equate to thousands of users.
Source: Marketwatch
Headspace downloads (total)
| Year | Downloads |
| 2014 | 1 million |
| 2016 | 6 million |
| 2018 | 40 million |
| 2020 | 65 million |
Sources: HW, The Times, Fortune, Marketwatch
By 2027, the global alternative healthcare industry—including meditation, acupuncture, breathing exercises, yoga and tai chi, and chiropractic services—will be worth $296.3B. Mindfulness is one of the fastest-growing health trends in America, with nearly 14% of people having tried meditation.
Citation: Phan-Le NT, Brennan L, Parker L (2022) The search for scientific meaning in mindfulness research: Insights from a scoping review. PLoS ONE 17(5): e0264924. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264924