Towards a mindful society

I have been procrastinating with this article for a while. Mindfulness is just one of those subjects who are overhyped and underrated at the same time. As individuals, we can practice mindfulness,  but wouldn’t it be better to live in a mindful society? As it happens, I have more than just opinion and these opinions contradict each other. You may also enjoy reading here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Mindful societies

Our western civilization is anything but mindful. We expand our curiosity far into other galaxies, back in time and into technology that functions and will probably soon live with us. The goals and values we place above other things are very consumerist: have nice things, earn social status, and if possible gain some bragging rights. Other societies are very different.

Does the money buy a social status? Not everywhere. In fact, in most societies, the status comes from birthrights, honorable behavior, and learning.  For example in communistic USSR, having a lot of money could get you in jail and a good job was a guarantee of social status. In India, social status can come from family status, money, knowledge, spiritual understanding, and many other things. In countries with strong aristocratic past and warrior culture, the social status comes from being brave and doing the right thing.

A mindful society seems like a Utopic vision: something which we earn for but cannot achieve.

Philosophy, religion, and spirituality

It’s not like we have not tried to build an ideal society. Communism intended all people to focus on society at work, families, and hobbies as the source of motivation rather than on personal resources. Philosophers long earned for nations ruled by wise men and not politics best described by Machiavelli. Christians tried to put the pope as the religious and moral compass above the emperor. In medieval Vietnam rulers often abducted to spend more time in religious practice. In most medieval countries a person could one day leave his entire life behind and become a monk. This option still exists. Hippies can still find communes to live in,  doing simple work and sharing sex and drugs with each other.

All of these inspired attempts eventually were hijacked by corruption, arrogance,  laziness, and a bunch of other sins.

The joy of life

Eventually, tired of building up an ideal society, we focused on consumption. Some call it the joy of life but is that so? We gain weight without physical activity and due to overstimulated taste and diet. No generation worked as hard as we do. Millennials probably work harder than their fathers. Our imagination is stressed and overstimulated by a combination of entertainment, job requirements and advertising. We can get all the pornography we can think of, yet we make love much less than our parents.

Almost everything we touch promises to bring us joy, yet we do not really enjoy. If a poor boy in Africa gets some honey he is joyful beyond our comprehension, yet we eat fantastic bonbons and feel empty and ashamed.

Mindfulness a cure

You might think that I feel successful with an impressive array of achievements, yet I feel like a complete failure because I failed to achieve my personal goals. In fact, everybody feels like a failure because we live in a very competitive society, and everybody loses occasionally. Rich and famous have a very high depression and suicide rate, so reaching our goals will probably make us even sicker.

In this state of unprecedented burnout and overstimulation, mindfulness once again appears like a remedy. Our life itself is the ultimate value because we are all very similar yet every life is unique. This understanding is difficult and radically different from the information bombarding us, yet it is the common wisdom of mankind through the centuries. As we fight overstimulation we get happier.

Sharpening the saw

Taking care of yourself to stay sharp and focus is a huge subject for all productivity gurus.

So, how do we search for the mindfulness? Nowadays meditation seems to be the common answer, although this is just one possible answer. Once we turn our focus inside, we reduce the amount of stimulation and start to pay attention to smaller things.

Another closely associated subject is minimalism. We hide everything that can highjack our focus and take it out only when we use it. Glass fascinates us, as transparent objects are both available for our use, and do not obstruct our vision.

A totally different yet strangely similar approach is losing yourself in a rhythm. Becoming one with music or dance, or simply being indistinguishable in a crowd, we feel the basic elements that make all the life valuable.

A rich inner world

At this point, you might ask yourself: does this expert on speedreading and memorization renounce his search for new information? The answer is a resounding “NO”.  On the contrary, all the information we acquire allows us to build a rich inner world, which can offset the overstimulation of our busy life.

As we learn more, the world of our own thoughts, associations, and questions becomes exciting. The things that appear obvious, suddenly become less obvious and full of magic. Recently I wondered with a friend who is a doctor: with all the things that can go wrong in childbirth, how do we consistently get the beautiful and successful children that we see everywhere? It is nothing short of a miracle.

The more issues we know and deeply care about, the better and deeper we connect with other people, the more likely we are to inspire and motivate them.

Every sensation and every object gets an infinite amount of perspectives as we learn, and we can be mindful spontaneously and effortlessly.

Mindful pets

Eventually, machines will become not just stronger, but also smarter than us. This process is almost inevitable. The last technological revolution I imagine is the revolution of mindfulness. The only thing no machine can do better than us is living, and to reach our full potential as absolutely unique living beings we will be forced to become truly mindful.

Raccoons living in cities are many times smarter than their wild siblings. Horses we ride on, are very sensitive to every thought and will of its rider. Cats learned to mimic our voices. Being pets of something bigger is not always a bad thing, and we might eventually build a truly mindful society – not so much by choice, but as an adaptation to technological progress. Maybe we will even acquire new limbs and abilities to facilitate the process. After all, technology already allows connecting electro-mechanical devices directly to our nerves.

Practical tips

OK, I think I either bored you to death or overstimulated your imagination. This is not the way an article about mindfulness should end. So instead I provide some tips (or riddles?) from my personal experience which might resonate with you:

• Less is more if you choose so. If you want to really appreciate something make it scarce. Abundance may make you more generous, daring and creative. To connect better with others it may be best to be average.  Everything has its pros and cons as you choose to reframe it.
• Focus on unique experiences as the true value. We want to hear people telling us about unique things and understandings. Everything that is unique is either totally worthless or extremely valuable.  The true art is not just scouting for the wonders of the world, but also making small things count. With some practice, every fruit we eat and every breath we make becomes unique.
• If overwhelmed, go back in time. No time machine is required. Time-lapse experiences may include walking in a park or another natural environment, listening to old music, reading paper books, horseriding and limiting exposure to digital devices.
• Make your senses work for you. Visualize and doodle.  Practice positive self-talk. Listen to music, maybe dance or generate your own music.  Touch the people you love, and smell them if you dare.  Control your senses, and do not allow advertisers to hijack this control from you.
• Mindfulness is not an activity, but a way of life. This is how I understand the wisdom of zen. Beginners practice meditation. More advanced students do everyday activities in a meditative state. Masters do not need to meditate, because mindfulness is as automatic and natural to them as breathing. But this is a subject for another article.