Discourse and mindfulness

Discourse theory can offer a nice explanation of what is going on in mindfulness. First, though, a disclaimer: I owe my understanding of mindfulness to Eckhardt Tolle's The Power of Now - a work that offered me solace and helpful tools for dealing with an acutely painful breakup over 10 years ago, as well as a couple of books by Thich Nhat Hanh and Jon Kabat-Zinn that I read years earlier. So I'm not offering a comprehensive analysis of mindfulness (even if there were a comprehensive thing called mindfulness).

Mindfulness is a spiritual, or at least psychological practice, in the way most people understand it. It's not verbal - in fact it's about quieting the mind. It's not social. If anything it's deeply psychologistic. So what could discourse theory possibly have to say about mindfulness?

Quite a lot, actually.

As I understand it, to be mindful is to be aware of the present externally and internally. To be observing without judging. The mindful state is one in which thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and the environment are simply observed without being indulged. You create a quiet, still place in your head that is separate to what is going on externally, and in your mind. It simply watches, silently.

Thoughts that normally drag you hither and thither are nullified, as are external irritants, whether that's the neighbour's dog, the inconsiderate housemate, or the despicable abuses of the Israeli state. They lose their power over you.

There's empirical evidence that mindfulness reduces stress, anxiety and depression. I've found it helps win back a sense of control.

So what is really going on with mindfulness?

I believe the main thing going on is that you are investing in a new subject position, one that stands at some remove from what we often think of as our conscious minds, i.e. the flow of thoughts, sensations, experiences.

You are disidentifying with the Cartesian cogito, the I think therefore I am. But you are re-identifying with the I observe myself thinking therefore I am. You're creating a new subject, one less affected - while still aware of - by the flow of inner and and outer sensations.

So what you are doing is augmenting your usual sense of self with an additional one - and whenever you practice mindfulness, you're shifting into, investing into, the additional subject position.

Now, this is quite apart from the other issues a lot of leftists have with mindfulness and its Buddhist origins. It preaches acceptance of unjust social arrangements, it teaches you to detach from your passions. Yet, in my opinion, mindfulness is a corrective rather than an absolute doctrine. It's a psychological (or, discursive!) tool to have in your kit. Especially if, like me, you're prone to stress, anxiety, insomnia and frequently find yourself overloaded.

I'm sure there's other things discourse theory can say about mindfulness. But that'll have to wait for another time.