What do you think about mindfulness

What's your opinion or experience about mindfulness? Pros and cons?
To me personally it's one of the most effective tools that helps me cope with anxiety. Of course I was in a very dark place around the holidays, however I believe if I didn't have mindfulness and other tools from therapy I'd be much much worse.

What I like about it is that doing body scan puts me back into my body which is a complete opposite of dissociation that I've been having since I can remember. Mindful observation of my environment does the same- it grounds me in reality instead of fantasy stories in my head. It helps me view household chores as an active meditation instead of extremely stressful activities. I can go on...

I'm very far from an enlightened person however I see a positive impact on my anxiety symptoms. Not that I would be able to lead a busy active work and social life... not yet! However in my relatively calm lifestyle I'm able to survive some very stressful unexpected circumstances that would have absolutely ruined me in the past.

For me mindfulness has nothing to do with feeling superior or enlightened as has been mentioned by someone else in another thread. It makes me more grounded because it forces me to get down from my crazy fantasies and philosophies back to my body.

I also love that unlike CBT it's not judgemental and doesn't make me feel like I'm absolutely stupid and like I should be ashamed for having wrong emotions and wrong thoughts.

If you get the chance, the book "Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga", By David Emerson and Elizabeth Hopper helped me take those first steps towards healing/connecting my body and mind. the book describes very simple tasks that allow the body and mind to be one with your surroundings. Sounds like you are on the right path towards healing

Wow, way to completely take what I said and say I said something completely different. I said I am not superior or especially enlightened. I never characterized mindfulness as those things, and I really have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

It's great that mindfulness works for you. For me, it has the opposite effect that it seems to have for you. Another one of the things I hate about the cult of mindfulness is the assumption that it is suitable for everybody and affects everyone the same way.

Edit : I see Susannah' s post had been deleted but will post my reply anyway.

I didn't say you said you were enlightened :-)

I absolutely didn't mean my post as an attack on you, Susannah. These were just my free associations, that's all. I was interested in hearing various perspectives and experiences.
It fascinates me how different people perceive the same things in different ways. I was genuinely curious to hear other people's opinions about this practice.
For example I'm happy that someone likes CBT but for me it's extremely retraumatizing. I find discussions about it interesting because it shows how people think differently and it's fascinating to read.
The same for new age and positive or motivational quotes. I absolutely hate that stuff from the bottom of my heart but I'm glad if it makes someone happy and I'm open to hearing about their experiences.
All I wanted to do with this thread was hear both sides, just out of curiosity and perhaps learn something new. Absolutely no criticism or confrontation intended.

Not sure what happened to Susannah's post. But I think she had something worth saying. I am sorry she deleted? her post.

Another way I like to think about mindfulness (keeping in mind that I like how you describe practicing meditation and other insights in meditation and mindfulness), is the connection we are able to make between earth, environment and atmosphere. I am also interested in hearing various perspectives and experiences.

Hmm, sometimes, I myself, will even perceive the same thing in a different way later in life. One of the mysteries of life I guess

Thanks, I've added this to my to read list!

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is the connection we are able to make between earth, environment and atmosphere.
)[/QUOTE]

This sounds interesting, could you maybe elaborate a little? What exactly do you mean by this?

No, I certainly didn't delete it. And I really don't appreciate that it was deleted, either, seeing as my words have been massively misinterpreted.

What I said in the other thread: "Many reasons. Mindful breathing triggers my asthma, for one thing. I also don't care for the detached aspect of mindfulness - it feels an awful lot like dissociation/depersonalization/derealization to me. I'm also never a fan of throwing judgement out the window. Having compassion for oneself is fine, but it strikes me as rather narcissistic to practice withholding judgement of oneself. And I don't think mindfulness is necessary to achieve self-awareness and be able to separate feelings from reality. At least, I don't find that to be true myself - and I don't think I'm superior or enlightened in some special way. I am prone to valuing facts over feelings, though, so maybe that helps."

OP has referred to what I said like this: "For me mindfulness has nothing to do with feeling superior or enlightened as has been mentioned by someone else in another thread."

I did not feel attacked. I did feel irritated that what I said was referred to in a way that suggests I said something completely different.

I don't do well with all the language around it. I do meditate and it helps me along with qi gong and the modified yoga I do (Due to motorcycle accident - some bones just won't do some of the poses anymore). I would never call it mindfulness.

All right, I apologize for the misunderstanding. As I said, this thread wasn't meant as a direct reply to your post. It's only inspired by it. And I have to repeat myself - it was started in a positive intent of sharing and comparing experiences. That's all.

Can you give an example of the language you don't like?

The term mindfulness to start. And then stuff like this:
"Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When we are mindful, we carefully observe our thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad. Mindfulness can also be a healthy way to identify and manage hidden emotions that may be causing problems in our personal and professional relationships. It means living in the moment and awakening to our current experience"

To me, this is just crap. But I also don't really listen to the chatter around yoga or meditation either - I just do them. I find doing them useful. I find the woowoo language off putting.

I detest mindfulness exercises for pretty much the same reasons other people have mentioned who don’t like it. If it works for a person, go for it. But it gets represented as the miracle technique for a wide variety of things which honestly rubs me the wrong way. It’s a bit woowoo for me. It was the one thing my therapist tried to push that I finally just forbid him to even mention. Not my thing.

As I reboot my dbt skills group, I’m finding that yes some of this is helpful
but does feel oversold like a miracle cure. Mindfulness and skills that go with it would’ve been great to learn as a kid, which I don’t mean in a condescending way at all. It’s just that faced with high anxiety depression and trauma issues it feels like those skills are drops of water beating against a stone. Permanent change, sure, but slow going. There must be other ways.

I think that was the turn-off for me ultimately. Mindfulness felt diminishing of the level of distress I was dealing with. Also, since it wasn’t introduced early on, by the time it was introduced, I had already developed my own ways of doing this that worked for me, and the mindfulness exercises felt goofy, unnatural, and quite honestly, insulting to my intelligence. I’m a pretty cognitive, logical being, and mindfulness seemed rather mindless.

Once I was able to reframe the woo-woo vibe I got from the idea of mindfulness into language that is more meaningful and practical for me, I realized that it's just about finding what helps me feel balanced.

In a way, it was kind of a let-down because I was looking for a Thing to Do that would fix me. Instead, I have gradually tried new things that make me feel good and recognized things I've always done that keep me connected to my sense of my self. Rather than begin to practice mindfulness, I've identified what I do in my life that is mindful, what kinds of time help me stay balanced, and make sure to find space in my days or those things.

"Mindfulness" is a confusing concept for many people because the term, actually, contradicts its meaning. The purpose of practicing mindfulness is simply to learn how to be present a.k.a grounded in the present moment. But the word "mind-ful-ness", paradoxically, implies that the mind is "full", which is exactly what you want not to experience when you practice mindfulness

So, if someone wants to explore what it means in practice, I'd recommend to throw the word "mindfulness" out the window so it wouldn't confuse you and think of just being fully present where you are. This means creating a distance between you and your thoughts at the moment and all the emotions they might create in you. Being present, essentially, is coming to understanding that you are not your thoughts or your feelings or your beliefs or your behavior. The more you let this idea sink in, the more "mindful" a.k.a present you will become and the less you will identify yourself with your thoughts, feelings, actions etc. You will know that you are none of those things but rather a silent observer, who observes all of it from a distance. That's what "mindfulness" is in a nutshell.

To me it seems what you describe is a form of mindfulness, although you don't use woowoo language or formal meditation. It's a way of being fully present in the moment when you do things you enjoy.

LOL that's a a funny observation about the term itself! Since English isn't my native language it didn't even occur to me. I thought it's like "having mind full of present moment" or that it's simply one of the many words that can't be understood literally
I understood that that is the main idea of MF. However I bet one would have to practise for years to attain such an enlightened state. I guess it's impossible for most people to get there fully. And they way you describe it really sounds like a form of dissociaton. I can understand why someone would feel that way. So it might be very bad for people with that kind of problems.
I myself absolutely can't do any meditation which involves visualisation or imagination. It triggers my dissociation greatly, sometimes it brings me to the verge of psychotic symptoms. My T tried the rewind technique with me which is supposed to be absolutely safe and gentle. It made me see and telepathically hear aliens. Not in the room but in my mind. Even visualising my safe place feels very unsafe to me!

So the form of MF that I practise is mainly body scan and being aware of my surroundings using my senses. Perhaps this could be called grounding, too. I also use it when I'm anxious I pay attention to my heart and breathing and focus my attention on physical symptoms instead of the mental tension. Once I had a toothache and I focused and observed the pain and it actually decreased and I was able to fall asleep.

Well what I'm trying to say is that at this moment I don't think about detachment or non judgement as much as I use it for grounding and becoming more aware of "reality" around me. It's also helpful with paying attention to eating.

I think the moment I was born, God said "let this child be so anxious, that she wouldn't be able to sit still for a second"
So, mindfulness in its natural form isn't doable for me.
But a walk in a beautifull forest is.

This is helpful. Thanks

Mindfulness benefits me in all the ways you mentioned. In addition, I think it is responsible for lowering my cortisol levels, as lab tested roughly before and after, improved sleep, and general energy during the day.

I didn't know mindfulness was supposed to make you enlightened. I think people used to think that about meditation (which I've done for a couple of decades) but my practice never proceeded beyond being able to let go of my thoughts, over and over, until the bell dings. I'm definitely a failure at enlightenment, but I enjoy some of the buddhist philosophies and trying to apply them to my life. Maybe I'll see the benefits after reincarnation. j/k

Great it's lowered your cortisol! I hope it does the same for me.

...To expand on the ideas of connection from mind/body with expansion to the earth, environment and atmosphere. I see mindfulness/meditation as the practice of sensing reality starting from within, working your way out. Your mind acting as an antenna from the quiet sounds of nothingness to loud noises of a simple everything. And returning to "om". I am not sure if this process is called mindfulness or meditation, and I am not sure that makes a difference. But again, I do like the idea of practicing these things actively and logically as well

That's very interesting and cool! I quite like this more philosophical perspective.
However due to my past of religious OCD, psychosis and existential questions it is very important to me NOT to associate MF with any kind of spirituality. The moment I would start to assume there's something spiritual about it I would bet into anxiety, doubts and uncontrollable questioning... Or get psychotic symptoms.
Theoretically, I like your approach very much... However for my own safety I need to keep the practice 100% non - spiritual. Just reading the word "om" and "reincarnation" in Anne's post made me anxious and scared. But that's absolutely my own problem because I'm crazy. No normal person would consider those words triggering. :-D
Edit : and this is a nice practice for self acceptance