Following on with the edX online course, the topic that took predominance was mindfulness. According to pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is deliberately paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgemental way. He is well known for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) technique developed in 1979 at the Massachusetts Medical School. The eight-week program translates Eastern traditions of mindfulness into a secular and mainstream context.
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Beyond affecting the mind, mindfulness is claimed to have helped people reduce chronic pain, clear up skin psoriasis, increase the immune response, reduce stress and boosted telomerase activity, the hallmark of a longer life expectancy. With these kind of claims, mindfulness has spawned a plethora of self-help multimillion-dollar industries — “a Buddha pill without religious beliefs or unforeseen side effects”.
There is a heavy bias in media reporting where moderate positive effects are highly inflated whereas non-significant and negative findings go unreported. As pointed out in a recent NewScientist report there are some cautionary tales.
The purpose of meditation was to challenge and rupture the idea of who you are, shaking one’s sense of self to the core so you realise there is ‘nothing there’ (Buddhism) or no real differentiation between you and the rest of the universe (Hinduism).
Such meditation for 20 minutes a day is likely to provoke mild changes in self-perception. While practising this, you usually feel more aware of your breathing, body and thoughts. Now imagine going on a meditation retreat and extending your focus on the flow of awareness for six hours or more each day.
This might feel blissful for some as everyday concerns dissipate, but for others the outcome will be emotional distress, hallucinations or perhaps even ending up in a psychiatric ward.
“Meditating can produce powerful effects, but not all of these are beneficial”. Meditation and detached killing became the norm in Japan during the second world war.
Returning to the edX course and the training of the mind for happiness. Here is a list of some toxic thought patterns to avoid:
* Perfectionism, where we strive for perfection and almost always find ourselves lacking. Being praised in childhood for intrinsic traits (like intelligence) rather than changeable traits (like effort) can promote perfectionism.
* Social comparison. Comparing ourself to those who are better off than us leads to lower self-perception, while comparing ourself to those who are worse off than us makes us look down on them.
* Materialism. In fact, research has shown that buying experiences gives us much more of a happiness boost than buying things.
* “Maximising” rather than “satisficing.” Maximisers try to make the optimal choice (a form of perfectionism), while satisficers pick the first available choice that fits their criteria. Maximisers tend to feel more regret over decisions, and be less optimistic, more depressed, and less satisfied with life and with any success they do achieve.