Things That Changed Our Lives In The Past Decade

Jocelyn Noveck of the Associated Press wrote an article titled “50 Things That Changed Our Lives In The Past Decade” that was printed in most newspapers. You may have seen it. Although many of the items relate to technology changes, what caught my eye were those that relate to the holistic area. Day by day we don’t see it, but over the course of 10 years we’ve made good progress. Here are six trends of interest, the parenthesis are my comments:

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: From acupuncture to herbal supplements to alternative ways of treating cancer, alternative medicine became more mainstream than ever. (We prefer to call it  Integrative rather than Alternative Medicine, but yes there is a lot more interest.)

FAT: This was the decade that fat became the enemy of the state. New York City banned trans fats, and Alabama — second in national obesity rankings — introduced a tax on overweight state workers. (There has been more emphasis on good nutrition and an understanding that what we eat affects us on so many levels.)

GOING GREEN: From the kind of light bulbs we use to the kind of shopping bags we carry to the cars we drive, "going green" took hold this decade. Now, it's not strange to hear a school kid tell a parent to use a cloth grocery bag. (We’ve been talking about this for a long time, but with Obama’s election last year there was a real shift.)

LIFE COACHES: In the aughts, there's a coach for everything! So why not life itself? Some say life coaches are merely therapists without the license or regulations. (Life Coaches are no substitute for psychotherapy, but can certainly help you set and meet your goals.)

ORGANIC: Americans rushed to fill their grocery carts with organic food, making it big business — now a $21 billion industry, up from $3.6 billion in 1997. At decade's end, Michelle Obama planted the first White House organic vegetable garden. (The visible evidence is the Farmer’s Markets that now even run through the winter.)

YOGA: Madonna, Gwyneth and other bendy celebrities brought the eastern practice mainstream. By the end of the decade, even Grandma could do downward-facing dogs on her Wii Fit. (Yoga works on so many levels.)

I also spotted four other trends from the last decade that make sites like Conscious CT work.

BLOG: I blog, you blog, he blogs ... How did we spend our time before blogging? There are more than 100 million of these Web logs out there in cyberspace. (And we make 100 million and one. But what an easy way to share ideas.)

CAMERAS: Remember those trips to get film developed? Nope? Even your grandmother has a digital camera, and she's probably e-mailing you photos right now or uploading them to a photo-sharing site. (An enormous time saver for a website.)

GOOGLE: This was the decade that Google became a part of our brain function. You know that guy who was in that movie — when was it? Just Google it. (Allows us to quickly find information relevant to the website, like the article we are referencing here.)

YOUTUBE: Let's end this list and go kill some time by watching ... YouTube videos! The video-sharing site was born in 2005. Political candidates in 2008 even had their on YouTube channels. (YouTube has also been a low cost way for practitioners and teachers to make video available through links on our website.)

So the first decade of this century, although challenging, was not all bad. Good things are happening all around us. Stay positive!

To read Jocelyn Noveck’s full article go to 50 Things That Changed Our Lives In The Past Decade.