Mindfulness is not: “good for everyone”
Mindfulness as a quality of attention is like the oxygen in the air. We can't live without it, but fortunately we don't need to know anything about chemistry to be able to breathe.
However, when it comes to mindfulness as a practice, it's different. This practice adapts to the context in which it is taught and to the target group. Eight weeks of daily three-quarter-hour practice has proven to be accessible and useful for many, but for some, it may be too demanding.
The programs developed in the context of a hospital are not automatically applicable in another context, such as education or the corporate world. Meanwhile, other programs are being designed, tailored to different contexts. These programs do not necessarily follow an eight-week, three-quarter-hour format.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. That's why it's important to inquire beforehand about who is giving the training, their background, and for whom the training is intended.
June 2017
This text is part of a series about misunderstandings regarding mindfulness.
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Thank you for highlighting how important the context of practice is--its setting, goals, intended audience, trainer's qualifications, and so on. Practices are not context-neutral. Nor are they value-free. Some involved in the debate over the relation of mindfulness and Buddhist ethics seemed to be arguing from an abstracted view of mindfulness as a technology that is not located in the lives of actual people, whether trainers, hospital administrators, insurance executives, those seeming assistance, or their families and friends. Context may not be everything, but it is much like location in real estate.