I don’t know

Recently I came across an article about mindfulness and meditation in The Times. In the comments section, there were the predictable remarks about “woo” and “fad” and how mindfulness is just another meaningless buzzword to con people. I can relate to that criticism of “mindfulness” and I almost never talk about it. So rather than giving it a name as I talk about it here, I’m calling it [……………. ].

I have practiced various approaches to [……………. ] on and off for the past 30 years or so. The past 6-7 years it has been 20 minutes a day “formally”, five days a week.

It’s hard to say with certainty whether it has all had any effects, and what those effects are. The sort of changes created by [……………. ] take time. They gradually become the “new normal” so they don’t seem like changes. Only occasionally do I have the sense that I am now (re)acting differently than I would have done years ago. But I might be just imagining it.

Maybe I am doing [……………. ] “right” but maybe I’m doing it wrong, or maybe there is a better way that I may discover – or not. I certainly don’t feel confident enough to say to others which approach they should try, or indeed whether to adopt any approach.

All I can say is that I myself am committed to doing [……………. ] regularly, both in formal practice and in moments of everyday life.

γνῶθι σεαυτόν