My personal take is that mindfulness as a stress reliever is normally fine in small doses. It can often be very beneficial in lowering stress. If you have a kno

My personal take is that mindfulness as a stress reliever is normally fine in small doses. It can often be very beneficial in lowering stress. If you have a known underlying mental health problem however, I would recommend taking this up with some prior medical consultation all the same. Mindfulness employed as part of a spiritual practice however, should be practiced within the right context and with the right guidance. You have to remember that mindfulness is Buddhist in origin and, as a practice, sits within a whole web of practices that all support and interpenetrate. You absolutely cannot remove mindfulness from the other aspects of the path. It makes no sense to divorce it from right livelihood, right effort etc. Tldr. If you want spiritual progression, respect the tradition. That might sound a little conservative, but this is my own take on it at least. Jumping into a long retreat with no prior exposure to this amount of meditation and without a wider practice to ground it in, is not wise imho.