This is the introduction to a series of posts on common misconceptions about mindfulness.
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Before you start, you may find this five-minute read on what mindfulness is helpful. Some concepts, however, such as space and silence, are easier to grasp by what it is not. Mindfulness can be too, especially when it is first encountered.
Don't want to read? Why not listen? You can listen to this post (and others) HERE.
Mindfulness can be a slippery concept to grasp. And several common misconceptions make it even harder to understand. Before we can address specific misunderstandings it is important to understand where misconceptions about mindfulness come from.
When I started meditating in the mid-00s, my understanding was constructed from superficial snippets of wildly differing practices under the umbrella of meditation, drawn from film, television, books, friends, articles, pop culture references etc. Nowadays there is also the 'mindfulness industry' to blame for spreading misinformation in the hope of making a quick buck selling a simple solution to the complex problems we face.
As humans do, I used incomplete, imperfect information to form a stereotype and then applied this too widely. Mindfulness = Meditation. One person's experience = Everyone's. This over-simplification and -generalisation led, unsurprisingly, to varied, and often conflicting beliefs. Years later I have unpicked many of these often subtle beliefs and assumptions that were woven into my understanding. This was with the help of particular teachers and books which I'll link to at the end of this series.
I hope this post helps you to consider some assumptions you may have. I can confidently say I have held every misconception in this series at some point so you can't be more confused than I was.
READ PART 2 HERE
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