Mindfulness is (for me) very helpful for inter-personal tasks. Someone might say or write something that might normally provoke a task-devolving-reaction where I enumerate why they're wrong or maybe go with something snide or passive aggressive - which might make me feel better but predictably isn't very constructive. After practicing mindfulness I can usually catch myself and divert energies to more constructive routes.
Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
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Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#22“These effects explain why mindfulness does not alter performance”
Isn’t it some kind of crime against statistics to offer explanations for the null hypothesis?
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#23Meditation, in ancient and present India, is a tool for spiritual development, contemplation on the true nature of self and an aide to allow for detachment from worldly matters. Its not meant to be a method to calm down workers so that they will produce more profit for a corporation.
I wish more people talked about this
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#24I used to wonder why Buddhist monks seemed to do so little productive work despite all the productivity their meditation was supposed to bring. Why aren't they generating awesome works of science or philosophy or literature or something with all that clear-headedness? This might explain it.
you can only better understand yourself through meditation, its not a divine state where the secrets of the universe are revealed to you.
I think he was being sarcastic...
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#25Mindfulness is (for me) very helpful for inter-personal tasks. Someone might say or write something that might normally provoke a task-devolving-reaction where I enumerate why they're wrong or maybe go with something snide or passive aggressive - which might make me feel better but predictably isn't very constructive. After practicing mindfulness I can usually catch myself and divert energies to more constructive rou…
This is probably one of the few cases where mindfulness truly applies.
That having been said it isn't solving the root problem. You can't fix stupid... you can fix a lack of knowledge, experience and practical understanding - but that has to come from culture not individuals.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#26Mindfulness helped me single out most of the meaningless BS that I did in my life and work, and so I subconsciously started eliminating a lot of them.
Might make me "less productive" but did make me "more satisfied".
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#27It looks to me like it worked perfectly. The subjects increased their ability to recognize that they would better do something else meaningful. If my colleagues became less interested in pointless busywork, that would improve my life as well as theirs.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#28I'm singularly glad someone did this research. Anecdata: Mindfullness never worked for me, and I suspect even harmed me some. I noticed that I became more nihilist and depressed when I used to meditate. Meditation basically made me start realizing the pointlessness of everything, the little value of emotions, which is great if your goal is to become unemotional and destressed. However, stress and emotions are how hum…
Emotional detachment is not the goal of mindfulness practice as I understand it. The point of mindfulness practice is to become more of aware of your body, mind, feelings, and develop insight to things as they really are (see Satipatthana).
Devaluing emotions is exactly the opposite of the point of practice. Instead you want to get in touch with your emotions, deeply. The trick with not going off the rails emotionally is karma. Positive actions (e.g. generosity, patience, truthfulness) produce positive emotions, negative actions (e.g. speaking ill of others, lying, stealing) produce negative emotions. Karma can also help overcome nihilistic thought. Your actions actually do mean something to yourself and others (at least subjectively) and you can see and feel the results in real life.
I agree with you said about context. I think opportunists are extracting these techniques out of their original context and selling it as a panacea to all of your problems. This is wrong and can only lead to harm.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#29As someone who grew up in a western Buddhist community (and skimmed the article), this rings true to me.
I largely credit my success at work to the tools for working with my mind imparted by my upbringing and continued practice. However, mindfulness is just one of those tools.
There are forms of meditation that build upon mindfulness that I would argue can be very helpful to motivation. To put it another way, once you are able to focus your mind on the present moment, there are other things you can focus it on.
For instance, if I've got a meeting coming up where I need to partner with people with whom I know I usually have a combative relationship, engaging in a compassion meditation, such as Tonglen, motivates me to see their problems and want to help solve them.
Mindfulness itself is wonderful, but it is among the most basic of techniques for training your mind. It is remarkably comparable to physical exercise, where a basic level of activity yields amazing results for your overall health, but must be accompanied by specific training if you want to dramatically change your physical capabilities.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#30The very meaning of mindfulness is to detach from the self, and to do each and every task no matter how mundane it is as if brand new at each and every moment. Kind of like to see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour --so to say. So though the mundaneness of everything is quite real, the absolute newness of every moment is just as apparen…
No, you don't want to detach from the self. The point of mindfulness is to see that concept of an independent, separate self, separate from everything else is an illusion and we are interconnected. You are still you, but part of a bigger system.