Mindfulness

pprendeville

has anyone heard of this concept? is it a good thing basically is what i'd like to findo out?

mindfulness.ie

i'm a bit skeptical when i see it promoting vegetarianism and climate change.

Xizors Palace

I think your scepticism is well founded.

The term itself I suppose is quite similar to the term recollection. The term recollection is used in Christian circles.

The problem arises when New Age and Eastern 'spiritualities' hijack or re-appropriate orthodox Christian terms and give them a New Age meaning, thus snaring the unwary.

Unfortunately, we are going to see a rise in New Age and Eastern practises among Catholics disillusioned with their experiences in the Church in Ireland, due in part to the neglect of bishops and priests and a failure in catechesis. You don't have to be a victim though. You don't have to suffer for the negligence of others in presenting and handing on the orthodox and beautiful Catholic faith. One need not be deprived any longer. With the invention of the internet, all Catholics, at least those with the internet, can teach themselves the faith. The site in my signature is a very good, solid place to start.

You would also do well to find a good, solid Catholic priest or religious who can help you with your prayer life, assuming you are Catholic. That might be difficult, but not impossible.

From New Advent:

Recollection

Recollection, as understood in respect to the spiritual life, means attention to the presence of God in the soul. It includes the withdrawal of the mind from external and earthly affairs in order to attend to God and Divine things. It is the same as interior solitude in which the soul is alone with God.

This recollection is twofold:

- Active recollection may be acquired by our own efforts aided by the ordinary grace of God. Thus any devout soul can acquire the habit of thinking of God's presence and of fixing attention upon Him and his Divine perfections.

- Passive recollection does not depend upon our own efforts, but is an extraordinary grace infused by God, by which He summons together the faculties of the soul and manifests His presence and His perfections; this kind of recollection is classed by mystical writers as the first degree of infused contemplation.

The first kind of recollection belongs to ascetical devotion and practice. It is necessary for all who wish to attain Christian perfection. Without it, it is most difficult to make progress in virtue. Therefore, it is necessary to observe the means by which it may be acquired. These are:

- silence and solitude, according to our state of life, keeping in mind, at the same time, that one may be recollected amidst the duties of an active life;

- the avoidance of distracting and dissipating occupations not dictated by reason or required by necessity. Multiplicity of occupations is an obstacle to recollection. Father Faber says that the man who undertakes too much is a foolish man, if not a guilty one.

- The frequent exercise of the presence of God. As recollection is itself an application of the mind to the Divine presence within us, it is evident that the shortest way to its acquisition is frequently to call to mind that our souls are the temples of God.

If you want a sound approach to prayer, have a look at beginningCatholic.com. There you will find an authentic guide to Christian meditation.

pprendeville

thanks a mill. my wife had some postnatal depression and i saw thatsite advertised in a magazine recently and thought it might be worth having a look at.

your answer was just what i was looking for, i.e. it's a new age thing. have to be very weary these days of what you join. i'm focusing on The Divine Mercy recently but will have a look at those websites. i think what applies to me is the "taking on too much" and not concentrating on a few main things.

God bless.

Zombrex

Its not a "new age" thing

It is form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a real thing, it focuses on how a person thinks about their situation in a way of combating depression, as a lot of depression seems to be causes by a cascade of negative ideas formulating in the persons head coupled with anxiety.

It is not a wishy washy puts stones on your back to draw out the negative energy type New Age treatment. :pac:

CBT is practiced by trained therapists and has show some good results in recent years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

There are a number of sub-therapies in CBT, of which MBCT is one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive%E2%80%93behavioral_therapies

MBCT seems to have quite a bit of research behind it as well, but I would be lying if I said I knew how well its works. It is something you should talk to a therapist or doctor about.

The fact that your wifes depression is post-natal would be a key factor in assessing which therapy is best for her, as post-natal depression often has a strong chemical origin. CBT type therapies may or may not be suitable, I don't know.

Also who the therapist is is also as equally important as what therapy they are doing. Unfortunately there is not a lot to stop someone simply setting up shop as a therapist, even if they are terrible or have little professional training. While MBCT may be very good I wouldn't simply go to the person you see in the news paper

You should talk to your GP about a therapist they would recommend, or talk to some of the large organisations who can recommend a therapist near you.

Hope that helps, and I wish your wife a speedy recovery.

Fanny Cradock

pprendeville, your wife might benefit from talking to your GP. He/ she will be able to spell out some options that are available to her. If she is thinking of seeking a Christian response no doubt there are many Christian counsellors out there.

Xizors Palace

The danger is, and I have seen it myself, that many practitioners will use a combination of techniques, some acceptable to orthodox Christian faith, others not. It is this mish-mash which is the issue, because they tend to confuse genuine seekers who would not desire to be involved in New Age, but nonetheless do get involved unwittingly. Again, and I have seen this myself, these practitioners will deny that they are New Age. Oftentimes, they have little ethics and are more concerned with your wallet than with you as a person and what you would want. New Age practises are really a form of quackery that is very popular today in Ireland. They will use a variety of techniques to lend themselves credibility, such as combining genuine techniques, such as you gave as an example, CBT (and I am not confirming that mindfulness.ie is promoting any genuine, non-New Age techniques), with pseudo-science, and just plain quackery. One needs to proceed with great caution and realise that there are good Christian counsellors around who are not simply interested in lining their own pockets. I found one myself who accepts donations only. You can't beat that.

I am Catholic, but I have to say that the best Christian counsellors or therapists in Ireland today are good Christians, such as a good evangelical I know. Sadly, most 'Catholic' therapists, from Knock to Dublin to Galway, have imbibed too much of the kool-aid and are infected with New Age thinking and practise, and God-less humanistic psychology. I am sure there are exceptions, I just haven't found one.

It is possible that a good priest can be found, but again, you need to choose wisely.

Chamade

Mindfulness is not a form of CBT but rather has been integrated into CBT in the form of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. Mindfulness is about being fully in the present moment while allowing any thoughts or feelings to be present without trying to change them or give them your attention.

Best to go to your GP to suggest a suitable therapist, although you may have already done that, as you say your wife has Post natal depression and I am assuming this was diagnosed by a doctor.

I am very familiar with mindfulness and cannot see any reason why it would clash with any religious beliefs, regardless of what they may be.

antiskeptic

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

pprendeville, your wife might benefit from talking to your GP. He/ she will be able to spell out some options that are available to her. If she is thinking of seeking a Christian response no doubt there are many Christian counsellors out there.

A list of counsellors (of all Christian persuasions) can be found here.

http://www.iacc.ie/

This counselling practice consists of Christians (as far as I'm aware.)

http://www.counsellor.ie/Default.aspx

Blueboyd

Mindfulness is not a religion or New-Age.

Don't know about the Irish link in this thread though - I guess one could say there are lots that fall under "Christian slogan" too that is not so Christian.

What I know of Mindfulness is that when I was going through a VERY stressfull situation in life I bought this book

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_3?asin=B002V9YZTU&qid=1295721408&sr=1-3

as an audio download. It did help quite a lot to ease the stress. I also learned that most of the stress comes from thinkin about stuff that has already happened or thinking about something that might happen in the future. Concentrating on the present for a minute felt like a holiday on a tropical island.

I think the author said something like that he has developed it from Budhism (which is not a religion IMO either) but taken away all the mystisim and just used the things that works. He wants to introduce the medicine that man is not only physical but the well being consist of mind and body and they are connected.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as professor of medicine emeritus.

EDIT Jon Kabat-Zinn talking at Google
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

pprendeville

Anyone know of this guy Depak Chopra? Have some material on him about how to raise you're children and it seems good.

antiskeptic

pprendeville wrote: »

Anyone know of this guy Depak Chopra? Have some material on him about how to raise you're children and it seems good.

From Wikipedia

According to Business Week, one of Chopra's main messages is that by ridding oneself of negative emotions and developing intuition by listening to signals from the body, health can be improved. According to Chopra, slowing down or reversing the aging of the mind through his methods can increase one's lifespan up to the age of 120 years. As a result of his writings and lectures in this area, he is thought by some to be "one of the pre-eminent leaders of the mind-body-spirit movement".

Out and out new age I'd say. Satan Inside thus.

Zombrex

pprendeville wrote: »

Anyone know of this guy Depak Chopra? Have some material on him about how to raise you're children and it seems good.

Now he is New Age.

Chopra has made a career on trying to fit pseudo-science with spiritualism. He is roundly critized by scientists for not understanding the theories he links to and for misrepresenting science to the general public.

For example there is a theory in quantum science that says unless there is "an observer" a particle will be in a state of uncertainty, it won't actually physically exist at any particular point in space.

Chopra (among others) have latched on to this and said it demonstrates the power of the human mind and that we bring reality into existence, or a variation on this is that it proves a god exists because it is observing the universe.

In truth though in quantum science an "observer" is simply anything that is interacting with the particle, and this includes other particles. It does not mean observation in the sense that something intelligent looking at something else.

There are other examples, but he is not a real scientist and he has shown little interest in real science, so I would ignore him. He is the type of person who will say something like "You only use 10% of your brain, imagine what you could do if you used 100%", it sounds good but is nonsense.

pprendeville

in fairness, I must give him some credit for his advice on bringing up children. a lot of it sounds christian to me. however there is no mention of Jesus. i feel that Jesus must be made known to kids - what he did for us on the cross - i.e. died to save us from our sins. no greater love.....every child should know this.

Fanny Cradock

He is definitely in the new age camp.