We are taught critical thinking, in school, in research, in our purchases, in our media-saturated world. So, when we read about "mindful" this and "mindful" that, it is easy to write the whole thing off as a big scam, some hot deal, some foolishness. I have been thinking and reading about the subject for about 20 years and I can appreciate all sorts of doubts and cautions.
I read about a school in Ohio that had been teaching and practicing meditation for quite a while but recently decided to stop when some parents of the students started to worry that the whole idea was anti-Christian and maybe some sort of subversion. It happens that Ohio is the one state with a U.S. Congressman, Tim Ryan, who is a published author of a book on the subjects of meditation and mindfulness. His book "A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance and Recapture the American Spirit" explains his own meditation practice, what it has done for his hectic life as a Congressman, and what he sees as a potentially valuable tool.
"Mindful" usually means "aware" as in I am mindful that my library book is overdue and needs to be returned. So what's the big deal? I am aware of my hunger, the time, the temperature, and plenty of other things all day. Why should I strive to be aware, when I already am. Well, in general, the hullabaloo is about being aware of what is going on in the mind, almost as if we can see into it from next-door. If you can step back a little from the mind, not too far back but a little, you can see what is going on without being caught up. Being mindful in this sense is equivalent to a very valuable source of self-knowledge.
So, it makes sense that as physician, marital partners, religious practitioners, athletes, law enforcement personnel, teachers and students gain better self-knowledge they can see what they think and feel more accurately, they can provide better feedback and correction to themselves and they can perform better, professionally and privately. If you visit the home page of Mindfulness.org, you can be overwhelmed by all the claims and smiling faces. You can suspect the whole damned thing is just a little too happy, smiley, pleasant and bright. You can just see a kindergarten teacher or a long-distance flight stewardess (near the beginning of the flight) with a glowing smile plastered on her face which she intends to keep there, come Hell or high water.
The activity of trying to concentrate on a single point or place or word or sound for five or ten minutes has been part of every serious religion. Such an activity is the basis of almost any meditation method and its purpose is to increase one's sensitivity to the placement of one's attention. As that sensitivity increases, I get a little more likely to notice that I don't want Miss X's company or I really am going for another glass of wine or I drag my feet about doing housework. I am in a better position to get to know Miss X better or do a better job at not being near her. I can make it more trouble to have alcohol and I can begin some serious work with somebody to change my habits. I can reconsider my housework, what needs to be done and who I can get to help with it.
So, when you read that mindfulness improves relations among workers, aids people in avoiding alcoholism and makes for cleaner houses kept by happier householders, it is true because we are referring to the basic mental tools that are behind and inside all human activity.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
