Toxic mindfulness
The dangers of the mindfulness hype that nobody talks about
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Living mindfully and consciously is fundamentally healthy. But the hype surrounding the supposed panacea, mindfulness, also harbors dangers, as the psychologist Jason Linder warns.
Breathing exercises, meditation rituals, self-reflection. No matter whether we want to reduce stress, have to overcome lovesickness or are going through a crisis: The recommendation to approach the challenges of life with mindfulness apparently never seems to be wrong. At least we have met her on every corner for the last few years. Coaches offer courses on how to live more mindfully. Apps teach us to meditate and remind us to breathe every two hours. In dozens of guidebooks, we can read up on how to carefully slim down and then work off our overcrowded to-do lists. And in how many articles we and other online portals have advised to be mindful … there are definitely very, very many.
Why mindfulness is generally good and justified
Mindfulness in itself is not at all wrong, on the contrary. In fact, many people would do well to practice mindfulness and train to feel themselves. We live in a complex, hectic world in which we are mostly taught how to behave, function, keep up and fit in. Mindfulness can to some extent save us from losing ourselves in this hustle and bustle. But it is just not the panacea that it sometimes appears or is touted as. For some problems, breathing exercises, painting circles of life and meditating are not solutions. And some problems may even make mindfulness rituals worse, as psychologist Jason Linder wrote in an article for Psychology today writes.
Meditation can make mental disorders worse
“It is largely ignored that more than 20 published reports or studies have described mindfulness or meditation experiences that were so serious or frightening that they required additional treatment or medical attention,” said Jason Linder. Especially in people with trauma and depression, meditation – for example due to flashbacks or an even more intense, overwhelming perception of internal processes – can lead to a deterioration in their mental health. In the case of other mental disorders, too, it cannot be ruled out that mindfulness exercises have negative effects on some people. According to the psychologist, the American Psychological Association as well as the US National Institute of Health (NIH) explicitly stated in official publications that meditation can worsen certain “psychiatric problems” – the NIH advises consulting a doctor before you try your hand at it.
Mindfulness alone does not solve most problems
Even if we do not have traumatic experiences to deal with and we have not been diagnosed with a mental disorder, it is unlikely that we will become happier and more relaxed through mindfulness alone. It will certainly be good for many people to integrate rituals into their everyday life, which they lead into an exchange with themselves. Journaling, breathing exercises, meditating, taking regular breaks – slowing down and feeling what is actually going on in your own soul can in numerous cases improve your attitude towards life and have a positive effect on self-perception or satisfaction.
But just because in the course of my mindfulness exercises I find that my partner invests less in our relationship than I do, that won’t change. By meditating for ten minutes every morning, I don’t necessarily prevent my job from overwhelming me and driving me into burnout. If more and more tasks are charged to me and I cannot say no, then a mindfulness ritual is simply not enough.
Excessive mindfulness can take our lightness away
If we overdo it with mindfulness, there is also the risk that we will make life harder and more complicated than necessary and thereby slow ourselves down. Let’s take our feelings for a moment. It is of course true that all of our emotions have a purpose and function, so it is important to sense them and respond to them. But we don’t have to jump up at every emotional impulse and do a breathing exercise or write page by page about it in our diary. We don’t need to understand every mood swings so that we can stay mentally healthy and wake up balanced and in a good mood the next day. Some, actually quite a lot, we can safely pull past us or through us and leave it to our subconscious.
Conclusion
For many people, mindfulness is a suitable means to better perceive beautiful things as well as problems in their lives and to deal with themselves more consciously and in a more reflective manner. For mentally stressed or disturbed people, certain mindfulness exercises can be dangerous and lead to their health deteriorating. In order to really solve problems and become happier, we usually need other strategies and skills in addition to mindfulness, for example courage, a reasonably stable self-esteem, experience and much more. Last but not least, as with most things in life, mindfulness applies: We can overdo it and thereby create new problems that do not necessarily have to be there. As it is with hypes. Perhaps, once we get a chance, we will get used to being more careful with it.
Source used: psychologytoday.com