more context of your own existence held firmly and consistently in mind will reduce motivation for all sorts of intrinsically unrewarding tasks. this is the sam

more context of your own existence held firmly and consistently in mind will reduce motivation for all sorts of intrinsically unrewarding tasks. this is the same reason why some people who take psychedelic drugs reorient their lives away from consumerism etc. think about it for a second. you're a modestly self-aware animal, living on some tract of land on some planet during a blink of time. your day-to-day context and frame of mind ignores this fact -- it's too broad of a worldview to live in. but once you are in the habit of considering your own thoughts as natural and impersonal phenomena like light scattering on a mountainside, you start to live in that worldview anyway. you observe the phenomena of your body going to work; you observe the phenomena of your mind while it is at work, and observe its stress. observation usually implies separation between observer and object, however. in mindfulness, the two are the same. the sobriety of a wider and more naturalistic perspective as provided by mindfulness makes explaining the phenomena of anxiety trivial. anxiety at work is an emotion which drives the worker to generate revenue. task motivation is similar. you don't need to be an expert at mindfulness to detect the relationship between work and anxiety. these observations will not trigger someone to explicitly thoughtfully conclude that being motivated to perform a task at work is not worth the effort. but these observations will silently undermine the sense of urgency that comes with not being able to see very far in front of your nose. the answer to the question "what's the point of being alive" is not forthcoming with mindfulness. in my experience, it just makes the response much easier: "not this."