The idea that the only source of stress comes from work or that you shouldn’t separate mindfulness from the rest of Buddhist teachings seems wrong to me. Buddhism takes generally useful philosophy and adds a bunch of supernatural bs to it that isn’t need get the benefits.
IMHO Daoist philosophy got it right and is the secret to removing stress and anxiety from almost everything. Daoist teachings have been adopted into traditional cognitive behavior therapy now called “dialectic behavioral therapy”
I learned this when I was in my 20s in college during huge bouts of depression and social anxiety and haven’t been depressed in 20 years.
My son who was recently suffering from social anxiety disorder was practically cured by it.
Strip down these mindfulness systems their simplest, and discard all the supernatural mumbo jumbo, incense burning, and ritual chanting. It’s easier to digest and remember.
If you just try to imagine that the past and future don’t really exist, that categories and divisions of reality are wholly created models of it by our mind, and that we can relinquish and let go and let negative thoughts or events wash over
us like water, you can get a long way to ignoring most of the stress inducing phenomena in your life unless they are really salient.
At least that’s what’s worked form me. Should some starstuff on the pale blue dot really get worked up by wholly changeable and artificial deadlines? You can view them as important and plan for them yes, but don’t let your cortisol levels flare when things don’t go according to plans. Plans are changeable, life and health is more important.