I can't help but feel that obsessively mindful people always seem to have some deeper underlying issues that they need to cope with. I know a guy who for years went into all kind of new-age seminars, practised mindfulness constantly and then in a moment he told me about his traumatic event that has plagued him since childhood.
All the mindfullness was practised because deep down he felt at unease. Don't get me wrong, it is good to be observant and mindfull, but it is unnatural to be it all the time.
Our minds also need daydreaming, dull phases, excitement, the whole package.
You're definitely not wrong. Mindfulness tends to appeal to three types of people: people who want to "hack" their consciousness (these types often experiment with drugs, usually psychadelics), people who have mental health issues and don't want to use drugs, and spiritual/religious sorts who are looking for some form of spiritual meaning. Often you'll find people with some mix of these desires in the community. I think this makes sense though; the kind of people who are going to deliberately cultivate some property of the mind is generally someone who cares a lot about their mind for some reason or the other.
In order to correct a bad tendency, you have to exercise effort (as resistance) in all the spans in which the tendency may show.
Suppose for example you are standing: you have consolidated the function and the effort is optimal - but if you tended to fall you would have to spend more.
I don't think so. If you want to be more sporty, because you are overweight the lasting solution isn't going to be to try to be sporty all the time, because that is a too big jump. It is going to be to move more when you can and have make a small sustainable habit of doing a sport acrivity — and you do this on top of adressing other root causes of your overweight, which may be psychological and have to do with the food you're eating.
Don't fet me wrong, I have nothing against mindfulness, as I said it can be very good to be mindful. But as I said I have met quite some people who talk about practising it who do not come across as the balanced individuals they believe themselves to be.
I still don't believe being mindful all the time is good. Maybe being "meta-mindful" — so to be aware when it is also good to tap into other modes of perception — is better.
> If you want to be more sporty, because you are overweight
Then you would be in a very different context from that which I was mentioning: you brought to topic two, that of some discipline and that of "people with issues". I was explaining why discipline can be a full time job.
> Don't fet me wrong
You are probably getting me wrong, because I never said I am defending proposals from Harvard.
> who do not come across as the balanced individuals
Where is the surprise? Already since students are not qualified teachers by definition. (And there are evident reasons even before that, about the different categories called by some interest.)
> I still don't believe
Are you sure you understood what should be understood with an imprecise expression "all the time", with reference to what I wrote in the parent and which may have little to do with the practice that the people with issues described to you?
Well there are people who make CrossFit or veganism or entrepreneurship their whole personality... doesn't mean they are any good at it. In fact the ones who make the biggest show are often just overcompensating.
All the mindfullness was practised because deep down he felt at unease. Don't get me wrong, it is good to be observant and mindfull, but it is unnatural to be it all the time.
Our minds also need daydreaming, dull phases, excitement, the whole package.