Mindfulness and Poetry
 

I thought some of you might be interested in this interview I did on mindfulness and poetry:

https://www.newyou.com/health/3-surp...e-mindfulness/

“Serenity now.... Serenity now....”

Reciting poems to myself and mentally singing certain lines of songs have probably kept me from strangling several doctors over the years. And generally I choose verses with interesting syllabic patterns rather than cheering or calming words.

I have no regrets about bringing poetry to a wider audience.

“Mindfulness” helps people... treat systemic overwork in a sociopathic economy with an eviscerated safety net as an essentially psychological problem, and the professional-managerial class to regard doing so as a sign of virtue!

My parents spanked me for biting my nails to calm myself, in the absence of better coping mechanisms. I don't think nail-biting was the source of my problems, Quincy. I think you are similarly choosing the wrong target here.

Even if that's accurate, Quincy, if mindfulness actually makes people feel better, it's a much more accessible palliative than fixing the sociopathic economy, so maybe it's worth practicing until your words are heeded and capitalism becomes a relic of the past. But I also think it's pretty silly to suggest that the only obstacle to peace of mind that people face is economic.

Sorry to pile on, Quincy. Mindful meditation is a good thing whatever your stress levels and whatever the cause of them. It needn't be mutually exclusive with active engagement in the outside world or attempting to change it.

Its current faddishness can be annoying but the practise itself can't be blamed for that.

Edit: we cross-posted and I think I kind of anticipated your objections.

I totally get what the Jacobin article is saying about the cynical adoption of mindfulness by corporations. But it seems strange to hear the interviewee, a practicing Buddhist apparently, describe its benefits as "probably no better than going walking in the woods or going for a jog". Done properly, not as a goal-oriented thing, it is the key Buddhist technique for enlightenment. Its current, annoying ubiquity in boardrooms shouldn't lead one to throw the 3000 year old spiritual baby out with the corporate bathwater.

https://www.wired.com/2017/08/the-sc...ss-meditation/