Are you Addicted to Mindfulness?

Many Mindfulness practitioners come from a past of addiction.

Maybe it was sex or drink or drugs. Maybe it was work. Or the pub. Or fancy cars. Or expensive jewellery. Or relationships. Or sports.

Whatever it was, many of us were searching. Searching for happiness or contentment. Searching for something more.

And not finding it in those objects of our search, we turned inwards.

We began to practice meditation in all earnest. A bold step away from the addicted life.

And yet for many of us we have just replaced one form of seeking with another. Only now it is a ‘better’, more easily ‘justified’, more ‘wholesome’ sort of seeking.

But we are still reliant on it to feel good. Still reliant on it to feel whole.

I remember this only too well from back in the days when I lived in a Buddhist Community. 

We’d get up and go straight to the shrine room to meditate. 

And woe betide anyone who didn’t, as there’d be endless questions to ascertain if your mental state was ‘dipping’ due to your lack of practice.

For someone not feeling so positive, “I need to meditate” was a common phrase

As if meditation was the magic pill that would release them from the depths of suffering, into the bliss of mental wellbeing again.

And to be honest, it kind of was.

Because if you are playing the developmental game…..

The game where positive metal states are good, and negative or unpleasant mental states are bad. And any unpleasant mental states need to be got rid of or transformed into positive ones.

Then meditation is probably the thing for you.

But I can tell you from experience….

Many people play the meditation game for years without ever really getting ‘there’.

And by ‘there’ I mean to a place where their happiness is no longer reliant on their meditation.

Where they are free to be in life without any crux at all.

So if that is your goal, you might need to look somewhere else. Somewhere there is no longer that reliance. 

Somewhere where freedom abounds.

That is why I call what I do ‘Advanced Mindfulness’. To distinguish it from this kind of developmental game.

Advanced Mindfulness turns the game on its heels.

It asks you to look at what is happening. To look at the root cause.

To see the mechanism in process, rather than working with the result.

If you truly see why you get angry. Or anxious. Or jealous.

Or whatever.

If you truly see that process. You can cut it at it’s root.

Think about it…..

Do you want to keep spraying the weeds. in your garden?

Or would you rather dig them out roots and all?

If you dig them out roots and all, no need to keep checking on them everyday. You can just enjoy your nice weed-free garden.

So too with the mind. 

How to see the mechanism at work?

Is easy and difficult at the same time.

Meditation rarely does it. Too often we only catch the process half way through.

And many impulses stay hidden in the unconscious depths where meditation cannot access.

So we need tools to drag them up.

To bring them into the light of day.

This is the power of Advanced Mindfulness. It brings the depths to the surface and allows you to see.

And welcomes rather than transforms.

Though somewhat ironically, through this welcoming, transformation does take place.

What you can do next

Much as I’d love to show you some of the techniques of Advanced Mindfulness right now, this isn’t the place to do that.

But if you are curious to learn more, you can access my Free 5 Day Course in Advanced Mindfulness. Or check out more of my blog posts here.

The real aim of this post was simply to make you think….

Has mindfulness become your new addiction? Has it simply become your new form of searching for peace?

And if so, what are you going to do about it?

I’ll leave that up to you.

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Advanced Mindfulness is a method of resolving mental and emotional conflict, removing emotional blocks and limitations from our past, and allowing the natural state of happiness and presence to sine through. Sagara is an experienced Advanced Mindfulness Practitioner whose mission in life is to help  empower people to be able to work with their emotional states, to live happier, less stressful and more fulfilling lives.