Being Mindful Series: Common Misconceptions
“Being Mindful” is a blog series for anyone curious about mindfulness and meditation. Feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed with life? Mindfulness and meditation are powerful tools for improving your mental health. In this series, we'll explore the basics of mindfulness, how it can help you, and how to implement it into your life.
Mindfulness and meditation have seeped their way into modern Western culture for decades, and over that time, we’ve gained a lot of misunderstandings about the practice. Check out my last two posts, “What is Mindfulness?” and “What is Meditation?”, then come back here to see if you were led to believe any of these misconceptions.
#1. You’re supposed to “clear your mind” when you meditate
Good news for those who thought they could never meditate because they can’t quiet their mind! A completely blank mind isn’t possible or helpful.
Remember Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness, “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally”? Key word here is “awareness.” If our mind was a perfect blank slate, what would there be to be aware of?
As Kabat-Zinn explained in his MasterClass on Mindfulness and Meditation, “trying to make your mind blank is like expecting the ocean to always be flat.” It ain't happening. In fact, thoughts popping up during a meditation is actually a good thing. The act of bringing a wandering mind back to the present moment is like a workout for your brain. You’re teaching it to focus on the here and now, not what you have to do later or that annoying thing your coworker said.
#2. You have to be Buddhist to meditate
First off, no, you don’t. Kabat-Zinn explains it like this: “the principles of mindfulness are universal, just as science is universal—it just so happens that the Buddha discovered its benefits himself millennia ago.”
Meditation was first introduced to the Western world when Britain occupied Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1820s. It used to only be practiced in monasteries, but when Christian missionaries arrived, the monks began teaching a simpler version for the masses in order to safeguard its existence.
#3. Mindfulness is pseudoscience
On the contrary, there are countless legitimate scientific studies that show how mindfulness changes the brain for the better. For instance, a study in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging found that gray matter concentration in the hippocampus (which is crucial for memory, learning, and emotional processing) increases in those who meditate, which suggests meditators may be better at stabilizing their moods.
#4. You have to have perfect posture and sit cross legged when you meditate
Nope! As we’ve discussed, you can meditate whenever and however you want. You could be meditating while on a walk or playing with your kids. Kabat-Zinn teaches that “life itself is a meditation practice.”
If you’re settling in to do a formal meditation though, perhaps with a guided meditation from Insight Timer (see my post “What is Meditation?” for more on that), you may want to sit or lay down. The important thing is that you’re comfortable. If crossing your legs is painful, don’t do it. If a perfectly straight back is too much work, loosen up a bit. Use props like pillows, blankets, or yoga blocks in any way you need to make it possible for you to be still.
#5. Meditation will cure my stress
Stress is inevitable. I’m sorry to tell you, but there’s no such thing as no stress. External stressors are unavoidable. So no, meditation isn’t “curing” stress per se, but what it can help with is your response to stress.
Most of us react to stress like so:
Our nervous system becomes hyperaroused and we enter fight or flight mode
We internalize this dysregulation, which results in high blood pressure, sleep disorders, anxiety, and more
We engage in self-destructive behaviors to cope, like overworking or self-medicating with substances
Our body breaks down into exhaustion and illness
Mindfulness creates a new process when stress comes in:
Our nervous system becomes hyperaroused and we enter fight or flight mode
We become aware of the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations associated with the stress and remind ourselves that no threat is present
We recover quicker because we have the calmness of mind and body to solve the problem
