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For about 7 years, our team, now known as YogaX , has been promoting the integrative nature of yoga practice and philosophy. We have demonstrated via research that integrated yoga can be helpful in the fields of medicine, psychology, and physical exercise. It is now becoming clear that our emphasis on teaching a yoga that is inclusive of holistic lifestyle practices is also important to the field of mindfulness. Over the past decades, mindfulness has emerged as a powerful intervention in many contexts. Thanks to influential scientists, such as Jon Kabbat-Zin and Rick Hanson, and technology solutions, such as Calm, Headspace, and Insight Timer, mindfulness has become a widely-accepted and common practice.

Mindfulnesshas achieved a can-do-no-harmreputation. However, have you ever met adaily meditator who creates harm, lacks awareness, demands attention, fishesfor compliments, or plays on a phone through a conversation? Of course, we all have! Meditation cannotexcuse us from being human and it is not a complete solution for lifeimprovement.

Psychologicalresearch asserts that awareness is necessary but not sufficient forchange. Mindfulness is often practiced asan attention-strengthening activity. Forexample, the act of listening to a meditation for 5 minutes in the morning ornoticing your breathing for 10 minutes after lunch helps build the capacity forpaying attention. Enhanced attention isincredibly helpful and a necessary ingredient for change. However, without a path to help place attentionon life practices that create harmony and purpose, attention is simply noticing;in and of itself, it not transformed into change.

A recent article by Eric Dolan in PsyPost this August (link here) reviewed a study demonstrating that the non-judgmental practice of mindfulness may actually increase immoral behavior in meditators. The study involved 714 German adults (Study linked here) assigned to a brief mindfulness meditation practice or listened to a control recording. Participants assigned to the mindfulness condition showed less effort toward repairing damage, for example, after losing a friends bicycle. One possible explanation is that non-reactiveness facilitated by meditation reduced negative feelings caused by losing the bicycle. This reduction in negative affect may have resulted in less effort to repair the relationship and make amends.

Although researchers continue to question and explore themechanism of action that might have given rise to this finding, the point iswell taken. Mindfulness by itself doesnot provide guidance about how to live an ethical life. It is designed to increase the capacity forawareness and concentration. While theseskills have a number of standalone benefits, including decreased stress andstress-related physical reactions, they are not skills that necessarilytranslate into ethical or moral action.

Yoga philosophy, on the other hand, treats mindfulness asonly one part of a larger system of living called the eight limbs of yoga. The eight limbs of yoga detail a path towardsawakening, the final state of meditative consciousness. The eight limbs are as follows:

Limb 1 Yamas: ethical life choices

Limb 2 Niyamas: disciplined lifestyle

Limb 3 Asana: movement and posture

Limb 4 Pranayama: breath and energy awareness

Limb 5 Pratyahara: sense withdrawal to turn inward

Limb 6 Dharana: concentration

Limb 7 Dhyana: meditation

Limb 8 Samadhi: absorption or union with a greater whole

The foundational practices of the eight limbs are the ethicaland disciplined lifestyle choices (called the Yamas and Niyamas, which you canread about in our blog). Yoga ethics encourage us to promotepeacefulness (non-harming), truthfulness, non-stealing, moderation, andnon-passiveness. Yoga discipline guidesus towards living a life of purity, contentment, discipline, self-reflectionand dedication to the greater good.These practices lay the necessary foundation and create a helpfulcontainer for the development of breath work, movement, and the inner practicesof concentration and meditation.

In this tradition of yoga, mindfulness and meditation practicesare not recommended until ethical practices, personal discipline, breath awareness,embodied movement, and withdrawal of senses are in place. The contemporary urge is to cultivate mindfulnessas a quick tool that facilitates a better system of living. In yoga, however, mindfulness and meditationare practices that rest on and support a holistic and comprehensive lifestyleof compassion, lovingkindness, and joy.

We hope that these yogic wisdoms widen your understanding ofmindfulness and to consider situating your mindfulness practice within a largersystem of living that includes self-inquiry, breathing, and physicalpractice. This holistic approach mightjust enhance your experience of meditation and make you a better person in theprocess.

Thank you for reading.

YogaX

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Want to be a better person? Meditation is not enough. - Thrive Global