Questions and answers about Mindfulness

For most of my adult life, I have struggled on and off with mental health issues, particularly anxiety and depression. About 15 years ago a psychologist introduced me to a set of mindfulness exercises. They were developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that he founded at the University of Massachusetts Hospital in Boston in 1979. Although originally developed for patients with chronic illnesses, such exercises are now used in a much wider range of contexts. I have found these exercises incredibly helpful. They have helped me to learn to control my thoughts, particularly when I cannot ``turn off my brain.’’  Here are some answers to questions about mindfulness I am often asked.

 How would you describe mindfulness? 
I see it as a discipline or set of exercises that enable me to train my brain to slow down and to engage with the present (both in time and space), rather than letting my brain race out of control and fixate on past events or future imagined events.

As a Christian are you not concerned that mindfulness has its origins in Eastern Religions? 
Yes. If mindfulness means emptying your mind, losing your personal identity, merging with the universe, or thinking that life is an illusion. However, there are many versions of mindfulness, both religious and non-religious. I believe in common grace: ``God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’’. People of different religions, or none, all have the ability to discover (partial) truths about medicine, write great literature, and change the world for good.

Are there Christian versions of mindfulness exercises?
Yes. See, for example, The Mindful Christian on YouTube.
Here there is a fascinating theological dimension to the focus of Mindfulness on breathing. In Genesis 2 we learn how God ``breathes life’’ into humans. YHWH is the name of God that is revealed to Moses. This is the name that must never be spoken, in many Jewish traditions. There are suggestions that in Hebrew, this name is silently ``breathed.’’ 
Psalm 46:10 says ``Be still and know that I am God.’’

What do you think about the fact that your university has recently been promoting mindfulness?
 Superficially, I am happy that the university is attempting to put mental health on the agenda and making people aware of mindfulness. However, I am concerned that many initiatives seem to be more about marketing gimmicks, rather than serious engagement. This has been described as corporate well-washing. An article in the Financial Times and the Australian Financial Review points out that Mindfulness won't fix bad management. Furthermore, the university is not asking hard questions such as: why are so many students and staff have mental health problems? Is the university culture and policies contributing to these problems? If so, what does the institution need to change?

What mindfulness exercises would you recommend to start out? 
The one that I have found most helpful is the body scan. At a particularly low time 15 years ago I would do most of this every morning. If I wake up in the middle of the night and my mind is racing, I put on my headphones and do this exercise. I can usually go back to sleep.