Mindful, not mindfulness! 

Over the last couple of years, I have delivered a series of workshops for a large company on the topic of mindfulness at work. In the workshops, I explored how people can use mindfulness techniques to live productive lives in and out of work. 

Some might remember that I have a frustrating relationship with mindfulness. The current vogue of the positive psychology movement to push mindfulness as an object, a box to be picked, is unfortunate. Mindfulness should be part of the process of how we live our lives, not as a product to be consumed. (Have a look at a previous post, “On mindfulness with rancour”, on this topic.) 

For those that have worked with me, you will remember that I adopt a deceptively simple approach to counselling based upon four key phases (grounded in the Classical Grounded Theory research methodology): explore what is, or has been, going on, reflect on those experiences, understand what has been happening and
then choose the best-fit action that will work for us – an action that is modifiable, if necessary, in the future. This series of blogs will follow the same pattern, looking at where we are as a society and as persons, mixing theory and practice to help you choose the best fit for you to move forward and live your life as a person, not as an individual. 

The distinction between our being a ‘person’ and an individual is important to understand all that I do and why I emphasise living a productive life. (See here for a fuller explanation). We need to be more productive in our lives; to do this, we need to make more use of good mindfulness tools that help us become more aware of what is happening around us, helping us gain perspective on those things that hold us back in our lives or the concerns that inflect stress and anxiety. 

Becoming a Person means becoming mentally fit for living a rich and rewarding life in relationship with those around us working for the common good.