Why we all need mindfulness

"When the sky falls down, mindfulness holds it."

Our chaotic world offers an infinite supply of problems

If you make an effort to observe the world around you, you'll see near infinite instances of problems. From beggars on the street to big issues like climate change, COVID-19 and what not.

On the news ,you see civil unrest and social issues happening once in a while. Despite the grotesque effects these issues may present to our society, systemic racism seems to be a recurring issue as arbitrary arrests and killings of black people in the US is still very much a hot topic on the dining table. Climate change is happening but we somehow convince ourselves that if we deny its existence, it probably won't happen at all.

We can see how small actions of a few can snowball into gargantuan nation-wide problems. A good example to picture this phenomenon is institutional decay. Bad governance and corruption erodes public trust, which causes more tax evasion which in turn disables leaders from delivering their promises and encourages government officials to involve deeper in corruption. All in all, a handful of high-profile corruption scandals is all it takes to create anarchies.

The world is fundamentally chaotic and unpredictable. Order and stability exist out of pure luck and due to entropy it will sometime devolve into disorder and non-existence. It's just what it is.

Problems can be recursive

Have you ever taken shortcuts to avoid the gridlock traffic only to get lost soon after ?

Or the cautionary tales of people losing their entire savings to stock market crashes is so jarring and terrifying that you decided to stay off investing for good, even though investing in the long run might be beneficial to our financial well-being ?

Turns out that there is even a term to describe those cold-hard truths. The Law of Unintended Consequence applies to us when we come up with quick, instant and unthoughtful solutions which unintentionally exacerbates the very problem we're trying to solve. Unless we take a step back and examine whether our judgments and feelings are accurate and valid, we're jumping from one problem to the next.

We will never be completely happy.

If you're like me, you probably have set up life goals after one and another, but, the problem sometimes didn't quite go away, instead the problem evolved into something for the better or worse.

We all suffer from a condition known as hedonic treadmill. We all get the feeling that once we achieve a certain goal or reach a standard, we will be much much happier than before. But not long after we did so, we all noticed the bliss had just begun to fade away. Conversely, a person who have just been amputated might feel devastated at first, but overtime he/she will slowly adapt to it. Paris Syndrome should be considered if you think the Eiffel Tower should look like the one in the poster card.

Finding happiness is an undoing. It's cheesy and corny, I know. But a lot of us are still subconsciously looking for a dopamine kick and hoping for the next big thing, including me.

Don't take my word for it. A lot of authors and bloggers have already discussed on this topic to great lengths and depths. Among these outspoken people are Mark Manson and others.

Why we need mindfulness

It's sometimes hard to contend with these realities without getting off of your bed. It's even harder to confront them without losing some of your nerves.

For starters, those can be overwhelming and oppressive. They would identify their emotions and thoughts with who they are, and as the result every decision they ever make are based on how they feel at the moment. They are driven by constant dissatisfaction and over-reliance on external factors for happiness and well-being. Life is filled with unnecessary clutter and chances are they would get from one trouble to the next.

Meditation would mentally prepare us to contend with life hostilities and navigate through complex problems, and while the practice is known for chillaxing to binaural beats and calm ambient music ( which I find nothing wrong about it ), ancient Buddhists/Christians/Muslims all meditated to focus on a particular thought or object, and not to become "swayed" by their aimless thoughts and fleeting emotions, thus they sought order among our chaotic human nature. Perhaps the most important benefit of mindfulness/meditation is that the practice helps us to live in the present and take action, instead of hoping for a better future or wishing that the past never happened. As Eckhart Tolle mentioned in The Power of Now, the only time that we truly live is the present and the past and the present are psychological time ( aka. cognitive illusion ).

Mindfulness is just a tool not a pill

If mindfulness sounds like sunshine and rainbow, then why the heck do I still feel nothing after sitting still for ages ?

Despite all the praise and acclaims for this concept, mindfulness is by no means a one-size-fits-all solution. The point of meditating isn't to get rid of anxiety and life problems - it's just one of the ways to address our life issues with calmness and integrity.

Mindfulness is also a product, if not byproduct, of various life philosophies. Self-compassion encourages everyone to be mindful and compassionate about our failures so that we can live above it and weather the storm. Stoicism preaches that we should live with our best natures despite the chaos and turbulence around us.

I'm fairly confident to say that we will never be mindful all the time. Sometimes we think aimlessly and we think more than necessary ( I do too ), but it's okay.

Final thoughts

Mindfulness, in all regards, is more of an art of living than a mere technique.

P.S : This is pretty much a react blog to Mark Manson's book "Everything is F-ed". The book actually inspired me so profoundly that I decided to write this as a reflection. To those of you who haven't read the book I do recommend getting this book on your shelf.

I do aware that this article is somewhat a downer one. Reality has always been something we try to escape from whenever we think it's possible. But it's always important to acknowledge and live with the ugly side of it rather than escaping it only to feel worse upon revisiting.