The Mindfulness Trap

This morning I read Can Mindfulness Be a Path to Activism by Jay Caspian Kang for The New Yorker. In this article—the fourth in a series on religion and politics—he speaks with Ron Purser, a Buddhist teacher and the author of "McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality."

I talk about mindfulness a lot in this blog, my social content, and with my clients. This article made me consider that in focusing solely on the individual's nervous system regulation as it presents in speaking, I might be setting some people up for a known pitfall: the mindfulness trap.

If practicing mindfulness brings you to personal clarity and equilibrium, what then would tempt you to act globally instead of choosing to protect your "peace"?

As Ron Purser puts it in the article: "Traditional Buddhism is not about social activism if you look at it—it's about individual awakening. But, as the result of individual awakening, one becomes engaged with the world, because one doesn't feel separate from the world. That's what's lost. The modern version just reinforces separation. It tells you that you're a separate self who needs to manage your separate experience better."

And so, here's a clarification on mindfulness from my side of things. But do read the New Yorker article—it expands in a slightly different but equally important direction.

When I refer to mindfulness, I'm speaking about coming fully back into your body and creating a sense of safety within the vagus nerve so that it doesn't see threats where none exist. In the studio we do this through tremorwork, breathing exercises, sensory attention, and sometimes meditation.

These tools can provide immediate relief and, over time, create a sense of personal space within the mind—what some would describe as being centered or grounded. This is a great foundation for speaking with intention, clarity, and authority, among other things. But the act of connecting with others is just that: an action, and a social one. We do not (and should not) speak solely for our own purposes or to maintain our comfort. The best communication always builds understanding and connection between the speaker and the listener(s). And ideally, it travels further, connecting more people with the ideas that have been shared.

Mindful communication requires both the individual clarity and balance and the action of connecting to others.

Many have chosen—and will continue to choose—to enjoy the relief from the world that can be found in a mindfulness practice. But the world remains. In my opinion, too much detachment from each other and the subsequent distrust of what we say to each other is at the root of the societal breakdowns we're seeing. The solutions can, and likely will, involve personal risk and so I won't pretend that choosing to engage is easy.  But, worth it? Absolutely.

In Buddhism's Five Remembrances, one states, "My actions are my only true belongings." It is, for me, the metric that keeps me in my values and out of the safety bubble a personal mindfulness practice can create. Each of you has to decide what metric keeps you in your values and act from there.

So this is my impassioned plea to you: Find your center, stabilize yourself, find your power—then please use it to connect people and to act in community in the world. As Ron Purser says in the article: "Jesus Christ was all about love. There was an intimacy rather than an opposition. But he also threw over the tables in the temple."

‍

Do you have a way you are restoring yourself to engage in the world? I'd love to hear about it. Email me.

‍

***

Gina Razón is a recovering opera singer, functional voice coach, keynote speaker, and founder of GROW Voice, a Boston-based voice and communication practice. She is recognized for being the calm voice of clarity as she helps others connect the intention behind their ideas with their desired goals. She speaks on the power of speaking and leading from a center of neurophysiological embodiment. Gina holds a BM from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MM from the University of Denver both in Voice Performance.  She is an Appreciative Inquiry facilitator, an associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and trained in Somatic Voicework. She has served as the voice coach for TEDxNewEngland, and speaks at national and local events on the power of embodied voice. Gina is a member of the The Voice Foundation, the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, the National Speakers Association, and the Center for Appreciative Inquiry.

To see how Gina might help you design your communication infrastructure contact us.

For Gina’s TEDxCambridge talk click here.

‍

‍