Top findings so far!
1. Mindfulness and meditation often get spoken interchangeably, but there’s a difference:
Mindfulness is focusing your mind on the present: not dwelling in the past, not worrying about the future. Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trunpa Riponche coined the word “nowness”, which can be a synonym for it. Mindfulness can be done at any time, for example when you’re eating. Paying attention to the scent, texture, and taste of your food as you take each bite, as opposed to watching TV as you eat, can be a form of mindfulness.
Meditation is the practice of being familiar with yourself and focusing on personal and spiritual growth. There are thousands of techniques including controlled breathing, contemplative practices, chanting, and visualization. Controlled breathing can be thought of as mindfulness meditation because you are meditating through the mindfulness of your breath.
2. Community plays a key role in organized mindful/meditation practices.
Organized mindfulness and/or meditation groups, institutions, and religions that are located in the Bay Area have a heavy focus on community–both fostering community with each other, and taking the effects of your individual practice outside into your own community such as family, workplace, and neighborhood. Of the people I’ve talked to who belong in an organization, most mentioned that the organization’s community is like their second family, and gives them a sense of belonging. One of the core focuses of the community is to encourage each other and be positive influences to elevate the [happiness] of the group as a whole.
3. However, community isn’t always a good thing for some…
Sometimes the organization’s community can distract or stray away from the core of the philosophy or practice itself. Interviewee A left his organization and practice because he felt pressured into participating and dedicating his time to the organization, and felt it was cult-y. He strongly resonated with the core philosophy which was why he joined the organization in the first place, but his excitement diminished as he started noticing behaviours that he was not comfortable with. Another interviewee H mentioned that one of her friends in the organization was in it just to socialize and make friends, and not necessarily to strengthen her practice or philosophy. On the other hand, some people prefer not to be a part of a community at all, and want to keep the practice to themselves.
4. Mindfulness in a physical form can be as powerful as in a mental form.
I’ve been reading the book Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment, in which author Pat Ogden provides insight and accompanying worksheets for both psychotherapists and patients to help them with their symptoms. I originally started reading this for personal reasons, but I realized that the book covers interesting points that I had not considered before: being mindful of your body–not just breathing, but your posture, body language, and tendencies–and changing them over time can affect your thought process and behaviour. For example, if you have a tendency to slouch, look down, and make your body seem smaller, you could be dealing with some sort of uncomfortableness or vulnerability (or maybe you just have bad posture, but that’s besides the point). If you put your body in a ‘heroic neutral’ stance, chest out and stance strong, you can trick your mind into thinking that you’re confident, and your thoughts may be able to go into a positive direction. I plan to continue reading this book with more curiosity around this topic.
5. Mindfulness/meditation practitioners will almost always say that their target audience/who should practice is everyone.
“Who is your organization’s main audience?” “Everyone” “Who benefits most from the practice?” “Everyone”
This is basically what everyone practicing mindfulness/meditation says. I could definitely phrase this question better because I know that there are certain people who are more curious or feel the need for mindfulness and meditation than others. For example, from what I’ve observed in my organization there are a lot of people who started their practice when they were struggling, whether it be financially, mentally, relationship-wise, etc. I think one of the biggest challenges I’ve been having is narrowing down my audience: who I’m designing for. There are many benefits to designing for a specific group of people, and designing for everyone results in a weak solution or product. At the moment I’m leaning toward people who are living with anxiety disorder and/or PTSD–I will be focusing on each separately, then maybe focus on one or find something in common that would work for both.
