Does anyone else find ‘mindfulness’ strange?

Even, dare I say, a little creepy?

I’m guessing that I’m alone on this one. I thought CBT was a joke when I first heard of it. Thought — still think — of mindfulness as being a bit like hypnosis; might work for some but not for me.

I just read an article detailing the 1,001 different types of mindfulness and the only type that resonated with me was the “Beatles Mindfulness.” BM involves the repetitive playing of “Let It Be” and becoming one with the song until you don’t care about anything else and depression, anxiety, poverty, poor health, etc., are all ‘swept away by an unusual destiny in the azure sea of ​​August.’

Yeah, I understand unusual destinies.

But, seriously. Mindfulness?

I think that I understand the mechanics of various practices; and the archaic use of the word when dad suggests, ‘be mindful of the undertow.’

Maybe I don’t want to accept the practice because of (what I find to be) the religious overtones? Like achieving a black belt in contemplative prayer?

Anyone care to briefly explain your understanding of mindfulness?

I agree its strange and just like hypnosis. It can be used to go into a hypnotic state.

Now that’s weird. Sounds like the goal of contemplative prayer — a goal that I thought I had achieved several times but was really a combination of my mental disorders.

Interested to see what others might share...

It makes sense to me in a stop to smell the roses way, and they mean that literally, eg stop racing around so much that you don’t even notice that it’s a nice day, etc. the problem that I had with it was that we have been taught to multitask and many of us have to do that just to live our lives. But if someone is a nervous wreck, slowing down and doing some enjoyable things is not a bad idea.

Okay, I can understand that a bit. It’s just that... well, when I’m hyper I’m going to bypass the roses because there’s nothing better than sex and spending and I’m not sure why but that’s that. Well, just spending these days.

If I had the ability to just STOP my symptoms, I would; but I CAN’T.

I initially heard of mindfulness in 1979. I was 16 and attended a lecture on TM (Transcendental Meditation). Back then, talking about mindfulness would have baffled most people - even scared them.

Yet, on marched the "Mindfulness Movement". From Jon Kabat-Zinn, to sitting zazen in a Buddhist dojo, to seeing classes offered on Mindfulness, many that are extremely costly, to - yes! - mindfulness classes and group meetings free for war veterans at the Veteran's Admin. Mindfulness has become the top-of-the-charts #1 song sung by mental health providers everywhere. It's all "mindfulness and Seroquel" nowadays.

If I hear one more therapist tell me to practice "mindfulness" I will puke on his/her shoes. (In fact, I asked my wonderfully understanding current therapist not to mention mindfulness in our sessions.)

I do believe that I understand the concept of mindfulness. My problem with the mindfulness philosophy is that, since I was a young child, I have been too mindful . Hyper-aware of every minute moment within each moment.

Apparently, there are whole crowds of people who have suddenly had epiphanies of "the moment" by practicing mindfulness. Good for them, I say! Sadly, I am not one of those people; what I need is an anti-mindfulness method. I need a method to stop thinking about being in the here and now...I desperately need an escape from the sharp edge of every moment.

I had it rammed down my throat when I started therapy and it made me twitchy. When I started with my new therapist I flat out told her I did not want to hear about mindfulness or meditation. Especially meditation. I know people love it, but it just isnt for me.

I known I've been being taught mindfulness, but it's being delivered in the form of specific skills to deal with my specific problems and when I say something is not for me, my therapist respects that.

——-yes I so prefer learning specific skills. Sometimes I prefer workbooks. At the t I can get so sidetracked venting with my darn mixed states.

If someone is worried or bothered by circumstances in their life aren't they already being "mindful"? They worry about the here and now, yes?
I found DBT like mind control and never even considered CBT.

I found CBT to be like very ineffective mind control - mind control a very sub optimal thing

Mindfulness ... yes it can help unless the ... (fades out)

I found mindfulness to be helpful for me in terms of defining me feelings & understanding what in my environment was causing me to feel them & looking at the environment & seeing what I COULD DO to change it. My MI issues were ALL situstional so mindfulness makes a lot of sense in my situation.

Before DBT all I could say when my T asked how I was doing was just "ugh". I had no understanding or words to communicate what was actually going in & how I was really reacting to it.

I could flowchart a computer design but I couldn't see my own life or understand all that was really effecting me or how do deal with it. Using mindfulness in that way really helped me. No I don't meditate or do all those crazy things. I just use the concept in the way it helps me.

What mental health care staff faisl to inform is that mindfulness is a type of meditation. I don't know why they hide it or if they don't know it themselves. I have nothing against meditation but I don't like mindful meditation, I prefer other kinds. But they are like, that will do you no good because that is meditation and is useless while mindfulness is great! But it IS meditation!!! A type of it.

Then I ask what it is and they just go very vague about it, usually they want us to go for walks in the woods for some reason to be mindful. And sort of make ourselves extraverts, looking at each and everything, in the moment. I'm just unable. First of all, our woods are full of junkies so no thanks. But if I walk where it is safer, I prefer to talk to myself, the higher power, or I just daydream. It depends. This also relaxes me. I call this method, jokingly, mindlessness, but it fits me.

When it comes to pure meditation I like sound meditation, for instance 528 or 432 meditation. I assume health care says it is stupid, I don't know.

Walking meditation is basically making you an extravert, when in fact if you are an introvert, this might violate your cognitive style.

And if you do formal, sit down mindful meditation, this will strengthen your low latent inhibition, in some contexts it is good, but sometimes we need to actually do the opposite, weaken low latent inhibition. People already with low latent inhibition such as people with some types of ADHD, autism and schizophrenia might rather get worse from this method.

I hate when a method is so popular it is meant to cure us all, no matter how are brains work differently. I find that it violates who I am. Shouldn't good health care look at the individual more?

Om.......oom......oom ....om........

One of my many tattoos is a phrase on my arm. It is written in Tibetan and is, roughly, "Aum Mahne Padme Hum" - a meditative phrase that encompasses the sound of God in the universe. I have that phrase on my arm because I love sound; it is extremely meaningful to me; the idea that God communicates with the universe through sound is fascinating to me. The tattoo is there, too, because I have achieved tremendous benefit from sitting zazen (a type of Buddhist meditation).
Meditation, when done as it is intended, is not about controlling your thoughts, it is about not letting your thoughts control you.

That said, even for someone (me) who has practiced meditation for 30+ years, I have found that I cannot practice meditation at all unless I am quite stable on medication. To go there would be dangerous territory.

I'm wondering if part of what we're discussing - perhaps most of what we're discussing - is the difference between mental illness/emotional disturbance that is brought on by environmental factors and mental illness that is organic in nature. Mindfulness might be far more helpful for the former, not so much for the latter. With regard to organic MI I do believe that mindfulness (i.e, mindfulness meditation) can actually worsen symptoms.

An aside - jimi, you're post is terrific. You make an apt point about mindfulness being a meditation practice. My guess is that many (most?) mental health practitioners toss the word "mindfulness" around without truly understanding it's history and meaning.
Your post also gave me a good laugh. "Then I ask what it is and they just go very vague about it, usually they want us to go for walks in the woods for some reason to be mindful." hiLARious!!!!
Also..do tell, as I'm dying to know: why are the woods full of junkies?

Mindfulness is bringing yourself back to the present moment, every time you notice your mind is not in then present moment. Mindfulness meditation is bringing your mind back to your breath. There are other variations. I love mindfulness and meditation. It helps me a lot.

I understand the concept of mindfulness. What I cannot understand is that, even as I practice mindfulness I feel anxiety about the future. I cannot shut that off. Do you have any suggestions?

Hey Laurie, didn't read your post before mine. I was posting about my understanding of mindfulness in general / answering Amicus's question.

To answer your question: I think there's a misconception about mindfulness, and meditation, that it's supposed to make everything all better. It is my understanding that that is inaccurate. I was reading some Pema Chodron (from her book The Places That Scare You), and she said that if you want to have a practice of meditation, it's about staying with it, even when it gets hard and uncomfortable. Staying with those feelings of anxiety about the future...with whatever comes up, really. I feel like I'm not saying it right though, or as good as she did.

I do have a suggestion about feeling anxiety for the future, even though you are trying to be mindful. I think in those situations, it's best (and I have personally found, helpful. because I experience this too sometimes) to accept it. My mediation facilitator says it like this: "gently hold it, give it space." I'm not even completely sure what she means, but just seeing it in that way helps me all the same. It is not possible to be mindful all the time. And acceptance, whether I like what I'm accepting, or not, has helped too. It's not a perfect system and I'm not a buddha (or buddhist! just a student, here and there)! But I hope I helped you. I will go back and read your post, now!!

Laurie! I'm glad I read this! Lol, albeit, after I wrote to you, lol.

You make some really good points too, that I have heard before, about mindfulness and how it does not help everyone and how it can even make symptoms worse. I've heard this before and I think it's good to have as a reminder, that not all things work for all people. We're all different and need different tools.

Edit: ps - that is really interesting, about sound and God.

My DBT leader & my T said that some anxiety IS NORMAL. It is our mind's way of telling us that we have a problem or situation we need to deal with. We would be in trouble if we didn't feel anxiety like this. Even people without mental illness issues feel anxiety. It is what we do with it that can create the problems. Nothing in the world is going to block that because even though it is no longer necessary for our survival it is necessary to tell us we have to perform some important task in the future.

When I had a performance on my flute....anxiety was NORMAL. It made me know that I had a performance coming up & that I needed to focus my attention on practicing for it. Mindfullnesz is more for bringing us back to realitg we we are needlessly worrying about something that really isn't important in our life....brings our focus back to what is really going on in our life now & putting it all together in perspective.

I personally don't do meditation. It does nothing for me.....but I do take time to focus on things that need my attention & how to handle them in a wisemind way

Neither mantra meditation nor body (breathing meditation) is mindful meditation. I mean, sure you are sort of mindful doing most meditation but those two are strictly not called mindful meditation, mindful meditation is sort of zen meditation "light".

LOL, for the woods full of junkies, we have some woods that used to be bigger but now they built all around it so in a way it is part of the city now and close to civilization. Some people still dare going running there and some walk their dogs, but it has gotten more and more fishy over the years. Because it is by itself but still near the city, many drug deals are done there and also people go out there to do drugs when they feel they cannot do them at home.

It should at least be better than mindlessness.

Have you ever felt infinite love? Are you fully aware of yourself and your surroundings? What does it feel like to be YOU?

There is a term taught while sitting zazen: Just sit with it. Meaning, do not attach to any thought, feeling, or emotion that arises. Simply notice the thought, feeling, emotion, and just sit with it as it comes and goes. I think that's the same concept as Chodron's "stay with it".

I like "gently hold it, give it space".

Thank you for you affirming and helpful post.

See, I don’t like workbooks at all!

Reminds me of being in kindergarten and being given 1st and 2nd grader reading and maths workbooks and thinking how easy all of this crap was.

I’m not too good at learning specific skills, I don’t think... I need to cover all with a very broad brush; maybe because I feel my ‘sins’ so numerous!

Ooo-ooo! So, let’s say that I’m feeling impulsively foolish and want to go on an internet spending spree. That’s a real problem for me. So if I just ‘sit with the impulse’ it will go away?

I am so damned stupid; I really am.