I feel like it’s been marketed as a cool trendy thing to do as opposed to a an actual answer to a problem. A lot of people who can really use it think it’s woo woo, so they don’t use it. Others who do use it develop a attitude of spiritual superiority, and become intolerable, especially to people who are looking for evidence that mindfulness won’t work for them.
The thing of it is, that as it’s gotten more popular, like with anything, the efficacy Of the research gets a little more porous all the time, people looking to market anything will cherrypick the heck out research until most marketing won’t tell you a damn thing about what your going to get yourself into or why your doing it. They rely on scattershot marketing rather than focused marketing toward a target audience that really needs it and who will get the most out of what’s actually being offered.
Anyone marketing research based mindfulness is pretty much building their campaign around that porous research where their is lots of bias. The truth is this stuff has been around for thousands of years in some cases, and so why do you even need research? The truth is no matter how much research someone does It works only if you work it. It’s discipline you build not a pill you take. It’s more like karate or riding a bike than a miracle cure, witch sometimes it gets marketed as.
On the other hand a lot of marketing for mindfulness is touchy-feely, vague and doesn’t offer anything practical. Usually it comes with something that looks like…
Lots of thin, flexible women sitting in lotus positions with their eyes closed, it would be great if you were trying to find a scrunchy. You know how many people can actually sit like that for any length of time? Not very many, long enough to meditate for 20 minutes? Statistically speaking the no one, at least in America. So mindfulness meditation for everyone? Give me a break! Oh and lots of rocks balancing on each other in a reflective pool. That’s titillating.
Really? that’s the best anyone can come up with? Does mindfulness make you lazy? It obviously makes marketers lazy.