Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
scientificamerican.com
Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
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Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#2One thing to be mindful of is mindfulness is a fad. It’s not a silver bullet for fixing problems.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#3One thing to be mindful of is mindfulness is a fad. It’s not a silver bullet for fixing problems.
Think about what other things today are cool but ultimately a fad in the future. When mindfulness was on the rise sometime in 2017, dare if you would question it! Corporations sold mindfulness like hot cakes. I’ve read some arguments that it can psychologically destroy you.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#4One thing to be mindful of is mindfulness is a fad. It’s not a silver bullet for fixing problems.
True that it’s not a silver bullet.. I don’t really see it as a fad though. It’s been around for thousands of years. It’s probably not going anywhere.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#5One thing to be mindful of is mindfulness is a fad. It’s not a silver bullet for fixing problems.
Think about what other things today are cool but ultimately a fad in the future. When mindfulness was on the rise sometime in 2017, dare if you would question it! Corporations sold mindfulness like hot cakes. I’ve read some arguments that it can psychologically destroy you.
Along these lines, my psychiatrist was all about mindfulness. I’d spent my entire life working on being mindful of my actions and reinvented Cognitive Behavior Therapy in the process. For all the good it did me.
Without executive function, mindfulness is pretty much useless for self-improvement.
People misapply mindfulness all over the place and it drives me nuts. Maybe if we called it “paying attention to detail”, people would understand it better.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#6One thing to be mindful of is mindfulness is a fad. It’s not a silver bullet for fixing problems.
True that it’s not a silver bullet.. I don’t really see it as a fad though. It’s been around for thousands of years. It’s probably not going anywhere.
A lot of the talk about mindfulness is a fad. The actual practice is extremely old. Same with meditation.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#7Concentration (sustained attention) has many stages. For example, at the lowest stage and in an unpracticed individual, one must fight to keep attention placed on an object. Someone who is well practised will either pass over that stage immediately upon beginning to concentrate or they will not be in that stage for long. As concentration sustains it becomes easier to the point that no will is required for it to remain, it becomes automatic and arises as if you are being concentrated by the object. Sportsmen call this flow.
Are these studies comparing this difference? Do they first ascertain the level of skill in concentration that the subject has? Are they going to go against what all sportsmen who've experienced flow have to say on the matter?
Personally, I find much of the science world's attempts to look at mindfulness and/or meditation as incredibly clumsy, and frankly, arrogant. Just because people who have written extensively on the subject were not scientists is no reason to dispense with their insights (ha).
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#8One thing to be mindful of is mindfulness is a fad. It’s not a silver bullet for fixing problems.
I think it's the thinking that it must be a silver bullet to be of any use that has you calling it a fad.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think about what other things today are cool but ultimately a fad in the future. When mindfulness was on the rise sometime in 2017, dare if you would question it! Corporations sold mindfulness like hot cakes. I’ve read some arguments that it can psychologically destroy you.
Along these lines, my psychiatrist was all about mindfulness. I’d spent my entire life working on being mindful of my actions and reinvented Cognitive Behavior Therapy in the process. For all the good it did me. Without executive function, mindfulness is pretty much useless for self-improvement. People misapply mindfulness all over the place and it drives me nuts. Maybe if we called it “paying attention to detail”, p…
Mindfulness (in the Buddhist tradition, at least) is not a synonym for "paying attention to detail". From[1]:
> The practice of Satipatthana meditation centers on the methodical cultivation of one simple mental faculty readily available to all of us at any moment. This is the faculty of mindfulness, the capacity for attending to the content of our experience as it becomes manifest in the immediate present.
I can't speak to what your psychiatrist applied the term to, nor how it's been popularised.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think about what other things today are cool but ultimately a fad in the future. When mindfulness was on the rise sometime in 2017, dare if you would question it! Corporations sold mindfulness like hot cakes. I’ve read some arguments that it can psychologically destroy you.
Along these lines, my psychiatrist was all about mindfulness. I’d spent my entire life working on being mindful of my actions and reinvented Cognitive Behavior Therapy in the process. For all the good it did me. Without executive function, mindfulness is pretty much useless for self-improvement. People misapply mindfulness all over the place and it drives me nuts. Maybe if we called it “paying attention to detail”, p…
>> self-improvement
I don't see mindfulness as being for self improvement. Its most precious function is for self observation and self learning. It is intended for one to 'wake up' to be able to see oneself as one is. In our 'normal' state of functioning, we are completely divorced from most of our own internal perceptions most of the time. Do you realize that you have a foot right now? Likely no, but when you read that sentence, you are able to remember that you have a foot, and you can feel it and sense it. Mindfulness is intended to grow the experiencing of oneself to encompass all aspects of ones own reality including the physical body, intellectual activity, and emotional states. At the extreme end of the practice, one may perceive these things singularly and at all times.
Where self improvement involves changing oneself and trying to achieve, mindfulness involves acceptance and not trying to force something.
>> Without executive function
...however, some people are damaged and will not be able to realize self observation. We do not expect those without feet to run.
Edit: formatting