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Research into mindfulness emphasises the benefits, but tends to minimise the harm. Some research fails to mention any risk at all. This makes it hard to devise

by DanBC 6y ago

Research into mindfulness emphasises the benefits, but tends to minimise the harm. Some research fails to mention any risk at all. This makes it hard to devise a mindfulness program that doesn't cause harm. Mindfulness in schools is applied to the entire school population. Mindfulness in schools is usually delivered by teachers, and not trained therapists or psychologists. The combination of taking the entire population, including children at higher risk of harm, and not understanding how that harm can be caused, and using people with minimal training to provide the programme, means that some people get harmed. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0141076816644113 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01410768166441... https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/sites/britton-lab/files/images/Britton_2019_Can%20mindfulness%20be%20too%20much%20of%20a%20good%20thing.pdf https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/sites/britton-la... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735818301272 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581... > Mindfulness just means being aware and non-reactive Mary is a 10 year old girl. She is raped once a week by her step-father. You can see how being "aware" and "non-reactive" might cause extra harm.

anon9001 6y ago
Mindfulness is supposed to be a practice, and it's not necessarily an easy thing you can do with all benefits and minimal work. It's also deeply personal and not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. I think schools should treat meditation like prayer, because it's essentially the same function, and we should just avoid it in the classroom. Perhaps the real tragedy here is that many students will learn about mindfulness in schools and dismiss it as useless nonsense, when there actually may be something of value in there somewhere.
- warent 6y ago
  Prayer and meditation are completely different. There are studies which demonstrate a causal connection between meditation and mental health benefits, and even structural changes in the brain. It demonstrably helps with anxiety and depression. The same cannot be said for prayer. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-resea...
sukilot 6y ago
Pinning the problems of rape on meditation is absurd. If meditation causes Mary to freak out and the rapes to by discovered, that's a pretty huge win for Mary.
- DanBC 6y ago
  The example works even if the rapist has been convicted and is now in prison and Mary is no longer being raped. She deserves access to an evidence-based therapy such as EMDR, and she's not getting that because (in the UK) Government thinks mindfulness in schools is equivalent.

by DanBC 6y ago

anon9001 6y ago

Mindfulness is supposed to be a practice, and it's not necessarily an easy thing you can do with all benefits and minimal work. It's also deeply personal and not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. I think schools should treat meditation like prayer, because it's essentially the same function, and we should just avoid it in the classroom. Perhaps the real tragedy here is that many students will learn about mindfulness in schools and dismiss it as useless nonsense, when there actually may be something of value in there somewhere.

warent 6y ago
Prayer and meditation are completely different. There are studies which demonstrate a causal connection between meditation and mental health benefits, and even structural changes in the brain. It demonstrably helps with anxiety and depression. The same cannot be said for prayer. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-resea...

sukilot 6y ago

Pinning the problems of rape on meditation is absurd. If meditation causes Mary to freak out and the rapes to by discovered, that's a pretty huge win for Mary.

DanBC 6y ago
The example works even if the rapist has been convicted and is now in prison and Mary is no longer being raped. She deserves access to an evidence-based therapy such as EMDR, and she's not getting that because (in the UK) Government thinks mindfulness in schools is equivalent.