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Mindfulness meditation in America has a capitalism problem

I am always pondering the tension between personal healing/resilience and social justice and my responsibility as a service provider. I think this article points out some important considerations:

"There are also well-intentioned educators in schools across the country that are teaching mindfulness but lack any analysis of neoliberal reform in our education system. So they’re helping kids feel less anxiety about high-stakes tests without questioning the meaning and quality of those tests in the first place, without challenging the individualistic, competitive ethos underneath it all.

Mindfulness is also being used in inner-city schools as an anger-reduction technique, which in its own way is terrific. But at the same time, maybe we should be asking if that anger is legitimate? Maybe we should be asking why kids are angry and alienated? If we’re focused on reducing the reaction to these injustices and not focused on fixing the problems at the source of it all, how much good are we really doing?

Again, I want to be clear: I’m not opposed to teaching mindfulness to students or anyone else. But I just think we cannot ignore the moral and social dimensions of life, and I worry this is what’s happening."

 

https://www.vox.com/science-an...MsmqjfzfFhBqNZ6c98Mo

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We're fast to want the fix but not to look at root cause, eh?

Even if the fix is helpful, using the fix to gloss over the problem may just raise our ability to live with the problem.

On the other hand, mindfulness may help us be more creative and think more clearly. Let's hope those benefits lead to problem solving and not numbing out to the challenges. 

Very astute observation. This is a common paradox I've seen throughout my career. Teaching mindfulness without teaching some kind of exterior action is akin to dropping out and letting others take care of the root of the problem. We would be better served by learning how to approach problems more holistically. For example, using a Pressure-State-Response model, we would recognize that Teaching Mindfulness falls at the (R)esponse end. Identifying the different (P)ressures on students will help us to add additional responses to go along with teaching mindfulness.
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