Being mindful.

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: PARTING THOUGHTS - Column

MINDFULNESS CONTINUES to be the movement of the moment. Its trendiness has grown sufficient that psychotherapy trade journals engage in editorial handwringing over its detrimental effect on the profession. Who will need therapists when mindfulness is the free key to mental health?

Mindfulness, in the current psychobabble sense, is drawn from Buddhist meditative practices. I fear that many Western practitioners are bastardizing mindfulness in a way that could be offensive to practicing Buddhists, much like early-career Madonna traipsing around wearing rosaries as jewelry and babbling about naked men (the crucified Christ) being "sexy" was offensive to Catholics. Essentially, being present to the moment at hand, with full attention to the now and no double-tracking to other concerns, is mindfulness. When you are washing dishes, your whole being is focused on the experience of washing the dish: the scent of the lemony-fresh detergent; the faint gleaming prisms of bubbles; the feel of the water and the plates, slippery under rough fingers. It is a means to reduce the anxiety of trying to be in too many places, mentally at least, at once. It is the antithesis of multitasking and is an excellent skill. The ability to have mind, body, and heart in the same place and the same time is essential to joy.

Mindfulness creates a profound change in mood. Practitioners report being much more relaxed. At the same time, there is an increase in the intensity of experience that is invigorating. As noted, mindfulness is related to Eastern religions practices, and emphasizes having a nonjudgmental stance towards one's own thoughts. Thoughts are seen as part of experience, not some self-defining permanent situation to which one must react. Mindfulness is not impossible for practitioners of Western religions, and is indeed part of such ancient Christian practices as Centering Prayer, but the emphasis of so many practitioners on Eastern, rather than Western, core beliefs can be off-putting. As long as mindfulness is packaged up in Eastern religious practices, including yoga, it is unlikely to sweep up every practicing Christian and Jew in the U.S.

The notion that mindfulness is a threat to psychology is an entertaining thread on several levels. It is a foolish optimism to believe that trendiness predicts a far-reaching infection of the population. Such contagion seems to happen only with unfortunate things, such as baggy, droopy drawers on young men and stretchy...