Mindfulness academics and applications usually level to what Jon Kabat-Zinn referred to as the 9 Attitudes of Mindfulness: qualities like non-judging, endurance, newbie’s thoughts, belief, non-striving, acceptance, letting go, gratitude, and generosity.
Whereas extremely helpful, these attitudes had been by no means meant as commandments. They had been meant as reminders, useful reference factors to assist conscious consciousness and compassionate residing. However as mindfulness has been repackaged for the office, apps, and secular applications, one thing has gotten misplaced in translation.
As a substitute of versatile steerage, the 9 Attitudes of Mindfulness have, for a lot of, develop into inflexible beliefs. What begins as an invite to reside extra mindfully can in the end distort apply, resulting in confusion, passivity, and even hurt.
Right here’s the onerous reality: misunderstanding or over-applying the 9 Attitudes can create actual issues—issues I’ve skilled myself.
I’ve seen it occur firsthand. At Aware Chief, we train these attitudes in our MBSR and Licensed Office Mindfulness Facilitator (CWMF) applications. And but, right here’s the onerous reality: misunderstanding or over-applying them can create actual issues—issues I’ve skilled myself.
In the direction of a Balanced Software of the 9 Attitudes of Mindfulness
After I first encountered the 9 Attitudes, they made good sense on paper. However residing and main by them left me tied in knots. Ought to I at all times be affected person, even when urgency issues? Ought to I by no means choose, even when judgment is critical? What was meant to assist me navigate life began doing the alternative.
That have helped form Open MBSR, a framework I developed to reimagine mindfulness education for actual life: sensible, nuanced, and free from dogma. One key shift is studying to carry every mindfulness perspective dialectically, not simply understanding its intention, however recognizing its limits and pure counterbalance.
Earlier than I clarify what that appears like in apply, let’s take a better take a look at the place these attitudes can go incorrect, and the way we would method them in a different way.
When Good Intentions Aren’t Sufficient: Misinterpreting the 9 Attitudes
Non-judging
- Intention: Observing ideas and experiences with out labeling them good or unhealthy.
- Misapplication: Dismissing crucial thought; accepting dangerous conduct with out wholesome self-protection.
- Instance: Excusing repeated disrespect in a relationship underneath the guise of “not judging.”
Endurance
- Intention: Recognizing issues unfold in their very own time.
- Misapplication: Mistaking endurance for countless ready.
- Instance: Staying in a poisonous job or relationship far longer than is wholesome, believing “endurance” will sort things.
Newbie’s Thoughts
- Intention: Assembly every second with openness and curiosity.
- Misapplication: Ignoring hard-won life expertise.
- Instance: Discarding worthwhile abilities within the title of a “contemporary perspective,” making issues more durable than crucial.
Belief
- Intention: Trusting your instinct and emotions.
- Misapplication: Blind belief in speedy emotions with out discernment.
- Instance: Making impulsive life selections as a result of “it felt proper,” resulting in remorse.
Non-striving
- Intention: Letting go of fixating on outcomes.
- Misapplication: Abandoning ambition or course altogether.
- Instance: Neglecting training or profession planning, mistaking apathy for peace.
Acceptance
- Intention: Acknowledging actuality as it’s.
- Misapplication: Resignation or passivity.
- Instance: Ignoring a severe well being subject as a result of “I ought to simply settle for it.”
Letting Go
- Intention: Releasing attachment.
- Misapplication: Avoiding crucial emotional work.
- Instance: Suppressing anger as an alternative of processing it.
Gratitude
- Intention: Cultivating appreciation.
- Misapplication: Invalidating real misery.
- Instance: Over-focusing on “small joys” whereas ignoring main life dissatisfaction.
Generosity
- Intention: Giving from a spot of kindness.
- Misapplication: Giving with out boundaries, resulting in burnout.
- Instance: All the time placing others first till private well being and stability endure.
A New Strategy: Dialectical Considering and the Steadiness of Opposites
In Open MBSR, we use a dialectical method, holding two seemingly reverse concepts directly to discover a extra balanced, sensible balanced path.
This exhibits up clearly in Taoist philosophy by the idea of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang characterize stillness and exercise, receptivity and initiative, opposites that don’t cancel one another out however assist and rely upon each other.
Mindfulness works the identical method. Every perspective wants its counterpart to remain balanced.
How That Appears to be like in Observe
- Non-judging AND Essential Engagement
- Endurance AND Proactive Change
- Newbie’s Thoughts AND Leveraging Expertise
- Belief AND Discernment
- Non-striving AND Aim Orientation
- Acceptance AND Advocacy for Change
- Letting Go AND Emotional Engagement
- Gratitude AND Acknowledgment of Challenges
- Generosity AND Boundaries
After we maintain these attitudes dialectically, mindfulness turns into one thing we are able to really reside…not simply one thing we carry out in a meditation room.
What to Do When the Educating Itself Is the Drawback
After I first shared these observations, I encountered pushback. One response caught with me: the suggestion that these points stem from individuals merely not understanding the ideas accurately. If individuals simply grasped what these attitudes actually imply, the misapplications wouldn’t occur.
When a educating is persistently misunderstood, when practitioners throughout completely different backgrounds fall into the identical predictable traps, it could be time to look at how we’re educating slightly than blaming college students.
This troubled me. When a educating is persistently misunderstood, when practitioners throughout completely different backgrounds fall into the identical predictable traps, it could be time to look at how we’re educating slightly than blaming college students.
The patterns we’ve explored aren’t random. When “non-judging” is persistently interpreted as abandoning crucial pondering, when “acceptance” repeatedly turns into passive resignation, and when “letting go” predictably turns into emotional avoidance, these are systemic educating points, not particular person comprehension failures.
We’ve been presenting these 9 Attitudes of Mindfulness in isolation, stripped from their authentic Buddhist context that supplied pure steadiness and steerage. After we extract these highly effective ideas with out equal frameworks, we create circumstances the place practitioners predictably swing towards unhelpful extremes.
Revitalizing How We Assume About & Educate the 9 Attitudes
It’s time to take possession. One thing is damaged in how we’re educating these attitudes, and we have now the chance to repair it.
That’s why I wrote Open MBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness. It’s not nearly fixing how we train the 9 Attitudes; it’s about redesigning all the system to be open, sensible, and constructed for at the moment’s world.
This isn’t a minor tweak to current applications. It’s a basic transformation. The 9 Attitudes can do hurt when misapplied, however add dialectical pondering they usually develop into one thing really transformative, genuine, and sensible.
A model of this text was first printed March 5, 2024
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