McMindfulness: How mindfulness became the new capitalist spirituality
Lots of the goals of mindfulness are useful, but I find the term overly reductive, and the way it&#x27;s taught too abstract. Ask yourself if the more shallow goals of mindfulness make sense. For example, Thich Nhit Hanh constantly says it&#x27;s about presence, peace and happiness.<p>But you can&#x27;t be happy all the time, and shouldn&#x27;t be. If you&#x27;re happy, can you experience the moving emotion of a really tragic movie? Can you get angry about social injustice? We need a range of emotions. Really we should want to manage them better, not just always try to be happy, as if that&#x27;s the state we should always be in.<p>Also, thinking about the past and the future is useful, as long as you have a practical purpose for it. Thinking about the future is a great motivator, and can make us happy. Oh boy, my birthday is coming up! I almost have enough money to buy that house! And the past is a great teacher to learn from. Dwelling in a negative way is bad for us, but that can apply to the present, too. Really we should just not be absent-mindedly preoccupied with negativity, regardless of time.