Page 21 - My Indigo Sun November - December 2025
P. 21
Do We Really Need More Mindfulness?
The term “mindfulness” has become a Nowadays, though, we are rarely
part of our everyday vocabulary. What confronted with such physical threats;
does this word mean? It might connote yet, here we are, with the hard wiring
a mind full of thoughts. In fact, it is that predisposes us to generate an
almost the opposite. acute stress response at the slightest
provocation. Our adrenal glands are
Mindfulness involves cultivating prepped to secrete adrenaline and
awareness of our experiences, internal cortisol when provoked simply by our
and external, without reacting. We _thoughts_. Our blood pressure and
become the observer of life’s blood sugar skyrocket needlessly.
happenings. We do not benefit from Suppose we lack the resilience to quell
becoming upset, anxious, or depressed the acute stress response and bring
when things do not go our way. So we these hormone levels back down to
simply notice what is happening as normal quickly. In that case, they may
though looking down from above. become chronically elevated, leading to
hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
Another key element of mindfulness is
the focus on the present moment. Our We are also disposed to ruminating over
brains are programmed through many the past. While it is adaptive to savor
thousands of years of evolution to wonderful memories and consider
ponder the future – what danger may mistakes we have made so that we may
be lurking? What is the worst thing that learn from them, it is maladaptive to
may happen? This catastrophizing may generate negative thoughts and feelings
have been adaptive 200,000 years ago, that bring self-blame, guilt, and even
as we sat in our caves, keeping a fire depression and anxiety.
going and wondering whether a saber-
toothed tiger might be lurking outside Too much focus on the past and future
our dwelling. If we focused on such often means creating unpleasant
danger and prepared ourselves to react ideations. Our brains are wired with a
quickly, we tended to live longer and _negativity bias_. We tend to remember
have more offspring. The genes and and be affected by negative
epigenetic factors associated with such experiences and thoughts than positive
wariness therefore propagated through ones. Negative things have a greater
the population over many generations. impact on our state of mind than
neutral or positive things. We also tend
My Indigo Sun - 21
