There is no doubt that Mindfulness is being imposed as a complementary discipline to all kinds of activity aimed at personal growth and psychological intervention.
But as often happens when a "new" discipline bursts into force, its foundations can be misrepresented and eventually confused with other types of interventions or, simply and simply, talk about it with excessive lightness and superficiality, bringing it closer to other techniques and methodologies already existing.
Below we will detail 12 commonly spread myths or misconceptions about mindfulness that are important to clarify:
1. Mindfulness is a Relaxation technique based on Breathing: Wrong.
The big difference between Mindfulness and relaxation techniques is that relaxation techniques aim at relaxation, while Mindfulness simply works on the focus of attention in order to become aware of what is happening to us and how it is happening to us..
2. Mindfulness is a way to evade Reality: Wrong.
Many think that practicing Mindfulness or meditation, what they do is look for "a little corner" or a quiet area to momentarily escape from the stress of day to day. However, through Mindfulness what is achieved is become aware of the cause of stress. It is not about escaping from a reality, but quite the opposite: observing it to cross it with the light of consciousness.
3. Mindfulness is a way of putting the mind "Blank": Wrong.
With Mindfulness you always use a neutral point of attention from where to start and where to return in case of observing the arrival of "intrusive" thoughts. But from there to put the mind blank this a myth of meditation techniques. The issue with mindfulness is not keeping the mind blank, but rather know what is going on in our mind Without "hooking" ourselves to certain thoughts, since if we did, we would not be able to realize it: it is about recognizing what thoughts we are having and what emotions they generate in us..
To achieve this, it is important, once the thought is recognized, to return to the neutral point of care (which is normally breathing), to predispose us again to the process by which new thoughts can occur that would make us realize what is happening to us.
4. Mindfulness is a therapeutic stress reduction technique: Wrong.
To say that mindfulness reduces stress is to predict results that are not always true. It is not a therapy, but a complement to it since only acts on the focus of attention: through mindfulness we can become aware of what disturbs us emotionally and what possibly causes us stress; It is possible that in some people this simple awareness can have “therapeutic effects” of reducing stress, but selling it as stress-reducing therapy can even be considered misleading. Rather, we should speak of “stress regulation”, as long as it is complemented with other support tools and techniques..
5. Mindfulness is an alternative treatment with magical or mysterious effects: Wrong.
There is no magic whatsoever. The psychological mechanisms that unite thought, emotion and behavior are widely demonstrated, although it is true that the simplicity of the immediate effects that mindfulness has on the stabilization of cognitive processes from the beginning, could make you think of something magical, especially compared to cognitive-behavioral techniques that require more time and training to supply and apply.
6. Mindfulness is something mystical, esoteric or religious: Wrong.
Coming from the Eastern disciplines, this would suggest that to practice mindfulness you would have to be a Buddhist, Zen or Taoist. It is not so: although the root comes from religious disciplines, mindfulness as a Westernized practice in its essence, does not have religious connotations, although there are many monks and religious from Eastern disciplines who practice and teach this discipline and can generate some confusion.
With mindfulness human experience is not transcended to achieve a mystical experience, although it can happen depending on the case as an added effect but not as an objective. For it to be about mindfulness and not about religious practice, it is important that the person who guides the session refrains from introducing precepts or messages with a certain moral orientation towards certain practices and behaviors, not giving advice and not inducing certain specific ways of thinking in accordance with certain disciplines, limiting itself simply to guiding personal processes that in each person can be very different.
7. Mindfulness is a form of meditation: Wrong.
Meditation is the essence of mindfulness, but mindfulness as "mindfulness" is not just meditating in any way. It is important to bring the essence of the experience of mindfulness and awareness to action-oriented learning and personal change for the sake of a greater balance with oneself and with their environment: but everyone is free to seek and experiment the ways to get there later.
8. Mindfulness is only for when you feel bad: Wrong.
The practice of mindfulness is valid both in moments of enthusiasm and in those of sadness. Rather, it is about maintaining discipline regardless of the moments that a person lives to keep awareness active: both in moments of well-being and discomfort it can help us to realize what causes what we feel, lo attain a greater awareness, an attitude of gratitude, learning what happens to us, and appreciating more deeply the usefulness of what happens to us (regardless of whether we initially judge it as negative or positive), helping us to regulate and balance extreme moods that move away from the central point of balance.
9. Mindfulness is a substitute for psychological or medical treatments: Wrong.
At most, it could be understood as a complement to better understand our mental and emotional processes. It is rather a self-awareness and self-regulation tool but in no case should it be understood as a substitute for a clinical treatment.
10. Míndfulness is complicated and boring: Wrong.
Mindfulness is self discovery and it seems difficult to understand the discovery as something boring. It may be if we practice it looking for a specific result that takes a long time to arrive. But the absence of expectations is one of the essences of mindfulness. It is simply about becoming aware of what is happening to us. Some of this may cause you boredom because you do not want or do not want to look within. But becoming aware of it would be nothing more than a discovery that can be obtained from mindfulness and that is far from boring. It is also true that some postures of the practice can generate thoughts of discomfort and boredom, but in any case they will not be more than an opportunity to discover oneself about how one judges certain experiences..
11. Mindfulness induces being vegetarian: Wrong.
We can mindfully eat a steak and enjoy it. It is true that many people who practice mindfulness are also vegetarians, but in mindfulness we must refrain from giving advice or precepts about what to do and what not to do with food: everyone has their own process and needs everything that happens to them to learn of it and reach its conclusions; it is important to respect it before inducing it towards certain practices.
12. Mindfulness induces love of neighbor and universal peace: Wrong.
Mindfulness is awareness of what happens to me and how it happens to me (to me and not necessarily to others). If, upon becoming aware of it, a person feels more linked to others and feels a desire for universal peace and fusion with the next, in any case it will be an added effect or consequence that will occur only in that person but that there is no reason to extend to all cases.
A person may, as a result of a mindfulness session, realize that he deeply hates his neighbor at home. This is not why you will necessarily change your feeling by practicing mindfulness, but the practice itself will lead you sooner or later to make a determination regarding that feeling and what to do with it.. What comes next will be a successive consequence of your awareness and your personal process of learning and discovery..
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