"mindfulness has become a banal form of capitalist spirituality that mindlessly avoids social and political transformation, reinforcing the neoliberal status quo."
It would be more accurate to say that mindfulness, like anything else, can be used for escapism and avoidance. But I've been practicing it for 35 years and it's been the single most empowering tool I've found for taking back one's power, getting in touch with the truth, promoting awareness both within and without, tapping into our pain, its sources, and our deep desire to effect radical change. As you wrote in a brilliant piece recently, awareness of truth is the most powerful avenue for change. And that's exactly what mindfulness promotes -- awareness of truth that then forms the foundation for passionate personal and social action.
Mindfulness is also radical in that it enables one to take back individual power. I'm a psychotherapist who encourages her clients to look critically at the outer world and its disempowering false beliefs and ways of keeping us away from the truth. Mindfulness restores the self to its rightful place as the only trustworthy authority. One looks within for answers, discovers, nurtures and relies upon ones own values, beliefs and truth-based reality. For me personally, mindfulness put me in touch with my deep connection to all of life and my profound need to become my own authority, trust my own perceptions and become an agent of change.
From that place the most powerful social action then naturally arises.
Finally, the mindfulness emphasis on awareness without judgment puts an end to the endless self-criticism that keep us small, self-critical and dependent on external validations.
There's simply no basis for attacking mindfulness itself and risk turning people off to the practice itself. Better to address the element of human nature that looks for a quick fix. Better to describe how powerfully mindfulness can be used to support one's deepest truth and values, to take back one's authority and capacity for activism and to nurture oneself through the inevitable challenges and burnout problem we all face.
Mindfulness can be used to empower and nurture activists -- that would make an excellent essay that would give people something positive to work with. I've never met an activist or anyone concerned about social justice that doesn't need better self-care skills. Why cast the most powerful self-care tool around as something negative?
"mindfulness has become a banal form of capitalist spirituality that mindlessly avoids social and political transformation, reinforcing the neoliberal status quo."
It would be more accurate to say that mindfulness, like anything else, can be used for escapism and avoidance. But I've been practicing it for 35 years and it's been the single most empowering tool I've found for taking back one's power, getting in touch with the truth, promoting awareness both within and without, tapping into our pain, its sources, and our deep desire to effect radical change. As you wrote in a brilliant piece recently, awareness of truth is the most powerful avenue for change. And that's exactly what mindfulness promotes -- awareness of truth that then forms the foundation for passionate personal and social action.
Mindfulness is also radical in that it enables one to take back individual power. I'm a psychotherapist who encourages her clients to look critically at the outer world and its disempowering false beliefs and ways of keeping us away from the truth. Mindfulness restores the self to its rightful place as the only trustworthy authority. One looks within for answers, discovers, nurtures and relies upon ones own values, beliefs and truth-based reality. For me personally, mindfulness put me in touch with my deep connection to all of life and my profound need to become my own authority, trust my own perceptions and become an agent of change.
From that place the most powerful social action then naturally arises.
Finally, the mindfulness emphasis on awareness without judgment puts an end to the endless self-criticism that keep us small, self-critical and dependent on external validations.
There's simply no basis for attacking mindfulness itself and risk turning people off to the practice itself. Better to address the element of human nature that looks for a quick fix. Better to describe how powerfully mindfulness can be used to support one's deepest truth and values, to take back one's authority and capacity for activism and to nurture oneself through the inevitable challenges and burnout problem we all face.
Mindfulness can be used to empower and nurture activists -- that would make an excellent essay that would give people something positive to work with. I've never met an activist or anyone concerned about social justice that doesn't need better self-care skills. Why cast the most powerful self-care tool around as something negative?