Mindfulness is not about purging your thoughts. It's about being mindful of all your perceptions, including your thoughts. I agree that there is nothing without ideology in this world but there's really no reason to disavow mindfulness in totality because it's used to dull the mental anguish of modern capitalism (although I agree that it can be used cynically to keep people from pursuing a change in the material conditions of their lives)
Oh I completely agree - that's the objective definition of the term. But that's not how it's being used in the recent trend. Like primrosepathspeedrun was saying, it's more about the aesthetics than anything
I think that it's being sold as a service and that explains the current modern fascination. I reject out of hand though the demonization of mental self awareness aka mindfulness. I think it's unproductive
in practice, every time someone recommends it to me it's about not thinking about big stuff, just thinking about and occupying the present moment-always ahistorically, and generally without ambitions for the future, just think about now, right this moment.
The two aren't mutually exclusive. You wouldn't let yourself have 5, 10 minutes in a day where you're not actively thinking about the class struggle? No one can doubt your revolutionary bona fides but it's important to be aware of the pattern if your thought and how it influences your emotion and behavior. Kudos to you if you've never had issues with anxiety/depression but as someone who suffers from/has suffered from both awareness of my patterns of thought has brought me a lot of peace. Mindfulness is a practical approach to mental self awareness, and it doesn't need to be more than that if that's not helpful for you.
Allowing yourself time to "look away" from your idealized perception of the world to better understand it's material basis in your own being is really constructive. You could even call it a practice of self-criticism. I understand the hesitancy to participate in commodified mindfulness services, etc, but I don't think we should be rejecting it out of hand
none of what you're describing has been involved any time a doctor or therapist has suggested 'mindfulness' to me. this is literally the first im seeing anywhere where the these concepts are associated with 'mindfulness'.
I see cognitive behavioral therapy as being a process that includes the self awareness part of mindfulness at least. The acceptance part of mindfulness, accepting your unpleasant thoughts without judgement, could be viewed as looking past your justifiable concerns surrounding the negative aspects of your experience as a working person, but I prefer to see it as disarming your thoughts rather than disregarding them. Nothing about mindfulness based therapy suggests we should change our values, rather that we should not torture ourselves with obsessive and negative thinking.
I do think that mindfulness can be cynically "hocked" to working people to get them to ignore the inequities of capitalist society, but it can't actually get you to believe that you're not experiencing them. I also believe that mindfulness has a place in a post revolutionary society.
Mindfulness is not about purging your thoughts. It's about being mindful of all your perceptions, including your thoughts. I agree that there is nothing without ideology in this world but there's really no reason to disavow mindfulness in totality because it's used to dull the mental anguish of modern capitalism (although I agree that it can be used cynically to keep people from pursuing a change in the material conditions of their lives)
Oh I completely agree - that's the objective definition of the term. But that's not how it's being used in the recent trend. Like primrosepathspeedrun was saying, it's more about the aesthetics than anything
I think that it's being sold as a service and that explains the current modern fascination. I reject out of hand though the demonization of mental self awareness aka mindfulness. I think it's unproductive
in practice, every time someone recommends it to me it's about not thinking about big stuff, just thinking about and occupying the present moment-always ahistorically, and generally without ambitions for the future, just think about now, right this moment.
The two aren't mutually exclusive. You wouldn't let yourself have 5, 10 minutes in a day where you're not actively thinking about the class struggle? No one can doubt your revolutionary bona fides but it's important to be aware of the pattern if your thought and how it influences your emotion and behavior. Kudos to you if you've never had issues with anxiety/depression but as someone who suffers from/has suffered from both awareness of my patterns of thought has brought me a lot of peace. Mindfulness is a practical approach to mental self awareness, and it doesn't need to be more than that if that's not helpful for you.
looking away is not the solution. self awareness is fine? good and necessary, even? I find 'mindfulness' courses tend to discourage it.
if you really struggle with introspection, do some drugs.
Allowing yourself time to "look away" from your idealized perception of the world to better understand it's material basis in your own being is really constructive. You could even call it a practice of self-criticism. I understand the hesitancy to participate in commodified mindfulness services, etc, but I don't think we should be rejecting it out of hand
none of what you're describing has been involved any time a doctor or therapist has suggested 'mindfulness' to me. this is literally the first im seeing anywhere where the these concepts are associated with 'mindfulness'.
I see cognitive behavioral therapy as being a process that includes the self awareness part of mindfulness at least. The acceptance part of mindfulness, accepting your unpleasant thoughts without judgement, could be viewed as looking past your justifiable concerns surrounding the negative aspects of your experience as a working person, but I prefer to see it as disarming your thoughts rather than disregarding them. Nothing about mindfulness based therapy suggests we should change our values, rather that we should not torture ourselves with obsessive and negative thinking.
I do think that mindfulness can be cynically "hocked" to working people to get them to ignore the inequities of capitalist society, but it can't actually get you to believe that you're not experiencing them. I also believe that mindfulness has a place in a post revolutionary society.
you are describing several things I've heard of before, none of them called 'mindfulness'.
"Mindfulness | Psychology Today" https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/mindfulness?amp
silence, fed. brand new account account posting about violence and inviting people into off-site chats.
https://hexbear.net/post/211236/comment/2675199
https://hexbear.net/post/211236/comment/2674754
https://hexbear.net/post/211276/comment/2675528
https://hexbear.net/post/211293/comment/2675400
https://hexbear.net/post/211219/comment/2674682
https://hexbear.net/post/211236/comment/2675473
Death to America