Some claim that it changes your life for the better, while others criticise its ‘unspoken dangers and lack of regulations’. I went on a personal journey to find out more about Mindfulness, speaking to experts on both sides and experiencing a full three days retreat.
Mindfulness is on the rise in the United Kingdom, and many adopt it into their everyday life to become more present and connected with their body and emotions. Large corporations also hire experts to teach their employees mindfulness techniques to improve their mental health and performances.
The rapid spread of this practise has also drawn criticism from experts and researchers who believes that it can be harmful to individuals and bring back traumatic experiences from their past.
Where does Mindfulness come from?
Most modern Western practitioners and teachers of mindfulness learned about it in the Buddhist and Hindu tradition.
But according to some commentators, the history of mindfulness should not be reduced to Buddhism and Hinduism, as mindfulness also has roots in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Mindfulness may be even more involved in Buddhism than it is in Hinduism, as mindfulness (Sati) is considered to be the first step towards enlightenment.
How did Mindfulness Move From East to West?
One of the biggest influences for bringing mindfulness from the East to the West was Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Kabat-Zinn founded the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. This is where Kabat-Zinn developed his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, an eight-week program aimed at reducing stress.
Kabat-Zinn learned about and studied mindfulness under several Buddhist teachers, which gave him an Eastern foundation in mindfulness that he integrated with Western science to develop MBSR.
MBSR served as an inspiration for another mindfulness-based therapy program, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This therapy is aimed at treating Major Depressive Disorder.
This and other integrations of science and mindfulness helped popularize mindfulness in the West, particularly for audiences accustomed to Western science and unfamiliar with Eastern practices.
What is Mindfulness?
Jon Kabat-Zinn says that mindfulness is, “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”
According to the National Health Service (NHS), mindfulness involves, “paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.”
They say, “becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better. When becoming more aware of the present moment, it is also possible to experience afresh things that we have taken for granted.”
How to practise it
Mindful awareness can be developed through both “formal” and “informal” mindfulness practice.
Formal mindfulness practice requires more time and it is done through activities such as sitting meditation, breathing, body scan, mindful movement and visualisation.
Informal mindfulness practice means to create mindful moments and bringing mindful awareness to everyday activities such as walking, dishwashing, playing sports, eating and talking to others.
It is training our attention to return to the present moment with whichever activity we are busy with, in order to do it in a more focused and attentive way.
Back to the story
Doctor Miguel Farias is an experimental psychologist who also lectured at the university of Oxford and is currently teaching at Coventry University. He is one of the authors of the book ‘The Buddha Pill: can meditation change you?’
Where he speaks about the possible dangers of mindfulness meditation. He says that during those activities people can re-experience past traumas and that can be harmful to them. He also criticised the lack of regulations about mindfulness among therapists:
Dr Florian Ruths is a medical consultant and Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in London, where he trains Psychiatrists and psychologists in Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness.
He replied to Dr Farias’ views on mindfulness and meditation and also criticised his book, saying that “it shed a negative light on mindfulness” and that “it isn’t true that mindfulness isn’t properly regulated in the medical science and among professionals.”
Adrian Ride is a mindfulness teacher who organises three-days mindfulness retreats in Buckinghamshire, and he invited me to take part of one of them.
“I think the criticism of mindfulness happens because it is a concept that can’t be grasped analytically. It’s the capacity of being present and aware of the existence of only the present moment. It’s something that has to be experienced rather understood.”
For a whole weekend people who take part to his retreats live, eat and sleep together, and are immersed in mindful walks in nature, sound- based meditations and mindfulness speeches.
James, 41, is one of the people that were present at the retreat. He suffered from depression and anxiety and had severe alcohol and drug addictions. He explained how mindfulness helped him become more present and be more grateful about life:
Karl, 45, also experienced the retreat. He decided to join it because, “despite having a successful career”, he suffered from depression since a young age and he was looking for a tool to manage it. I interviewed him at the end of the retreat to see the impact that it had on him:
Mindfulness transcended traditional ties with religious practises, and has been adopted to help people cope with a modern world that can put great pressure and expectations on individuals, giving them a tool to potentially free themselves from their thoughts and connect them more with the surrounding reality.
However, there is still a great deal of things that we don’t know about how the mind works and the effect that mindfulness can have on every individual, but it is certainly an ever-growing phenomenon that seems to be here to stay.
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HeadlineMindfulness: A tool for a fuller life or an unregulated ‘wild west’?
Short HeadlineMindfulness: A tool for a fuller life or an unregulated 'wild west'?
StandfirstFathy El Shazly explores the increasing popularity of mindfulness in the west among praises and criticism.
Some claim that it changes your life for the better, while others criticise its ‘unspoken dangers and lack of regulations’. I went on a personal journey to find out more about Mindfulness, speaking to experts on both sides and experiencing a full three days retreat.
Mindfulness is on the rise in the United Kingdom, and many adopt it into their everyday life to become more present and connected with their body and emotions. Large corporations also hire experts to teach their employees mindfulness techniques to improve their mental health and performances.
The rapid spread of this practise has also drawn criticism from experts and researchers who believes that it can be harmful to individuals and bring back traumatic experiences from their past.
Where does Mindfulness come from?
Most modern Western practitioners and teachers of mindfulness learned about it in the Buddhist and Hindu tradition.
But according to some commentators, the history of mindfulness should not be reduced to Buddhism and Hinduism, as mindfulness also has roots in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Mindfulness may be even more involved in Buddhism than it is in Hinduism, as mindfulness (Sati) is considered to be the first step towards enlightenment.
How did Mindfulness Move From East to West?
One of the biggest influences for bringing mindfulness from the East to the West was Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Kabat-Zinn founded the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. This is where Kabat-Zinn developed his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, an eight-week program aimed at reducing stress.
Kabat-Zinn learned about and studied mindfulness under several Buddhist teachers, which gave him an Eastern foundation in mindfulness that he integrated with Western science to develop MBSR.
MBSR served as an inspiration for another mindfulness-based therapy program, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This therapy is aimed at treating Major Depressive Disorder.
This and other integrations of science and mindfulness helped popularize mindfulness in the West, particularly for audiences accustomed to Western science and unfamiliar with Eastern practices.
What is Mindfulness?
Jon Kabat-Zinn says that mindfulness is, “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”
According to the National Health Service (NHS), mindfulness involves, “paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.”
They say, “becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better. When becoming more aware of the present moment, it is also possible to experience afresh things that we have taken for granted.”
How to practise it
Mindful awareness can be developed through both “formal” and “informal” mindfulness practice.
Formal mindfulness practice requires more time and it is done through activities such as sitting meditation, breathing, body scan, mindful movement and visualisation.
Informal mindfulness practice means to create mindful moments and bringing mindful awareness to everyday activities such as walking, dishwashing, playing sports, eating and talking to others.
It is training our attention to return to the present moment with whichever activity we are busy with, in order to do it in a more focused and attentive way.
Back to the story
Doctor Miguel Farias is an experimental psychologist who also lectured at the university of Oxford and is currently teaching at Coventry University. He is one of the authors of the book ‘The Buddha Pill: can meditation change you?’
Where he speaks about the possible dangers of mindfulness meditation. He says that during those activities people can re-experience past traumas and that can be harmful to them. He also criticised the lack of regulations about mindfulness among therapists:
Dr Florian Ruths is a medical consultant and Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in London, where he trains Psychiatrists and psychologists in Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness.
He replied to Dr Farias’ views on mindfulness and meditation and also criticised his book, saying that “it shed a negative light on mindfulness” and that “it isn’t true that mindfulness isn’t properly regulated in the medical science and among professionals.”
Adrian Ride is a mindfulness teacher who organises three-days mindfulness retreats in Buckinghamshire, and he invited me to take part of one of them.
“I think the criticism of mindfulness happens because it is a concept that can’t be grasped analytically. It’s the capacity of being present and aware of the existence of only the present moment. It’s something that has to be experienced rather understood.”
For a whole weekend people who take part to his retreats live, eat and sleep together, and are immersed in mindful walks in nature, sound- based meditations and mindfulness speeches.
James, 41, is one of the people that were present at the retreat. He suffered from depression and anxiety and had severe alcohol and drug addictions. He explained how mindfulness helped him become more present and be more grateful about life:
Karl, 45, also experienced the retreat. He decided to join it because, “despite having a successful career”, he suffered from depression since a young age and he was looking for a tool to manage it. I interviewed him at the end of the retreat to see the impact that it had on him:
Mindfulness transcended traditional ties with religious practises, and has been adopted to help people cope with a modern world that can put great pressure and expectations on individuals, giving them a tool to potentially free themselves from their thoughts and connect them more with the surrounding reality.
However, there is still a great deal of things that we don’t know about how the mind works and the effect that mindfulness can have on every individual, but it is certainly an ever-growing phenomenon that seems to be here to stay.
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