As mindfulness continues to explode upon the consciousness of the world it is finding new applications in many areas. Since emerging in popularity as a stress reduction program from Jon Kabat Zinn in 1979, it has taken on many other areas of development that are valuable to us as people. Areas such as Emotional Intelligence, Compassion, Empathy, Resilience, Leadership and Vulnerability have become the latest buzz words in the mindfulness community of trainings. I have seen these 6 words attached to mindfulness trainings in one form or another almost everywhere and because of that people are focusing on these desirable qualities. Since all of these qualities are beneficial to us, it is a good thing to get the added attention to these areas. However, I wonder if too much is being made of this as I notice that trainings for these 6 areas are getting more and more complicated. Simplicity has always worked for me and I notice that as there is a move away from simplicity there is also a move away from effectiveness.
It seems to me that Emotional Intelligence, Compassion, Empathy, Resilience, Leadership and Vulnerability are qualities that cannot be taught but can be allowed to emerge. My experience has been that these 6 qualities are already part of who we are but in some cases are not able to be experienced and expressed. As mindfulness begins to allow us to connect with who we really are, we start to experience these 6 qualities as they emerge naturally in the process. As the awareness and attention grows, these natural qualities grow as well and continue to develop as more and more attention is placed on them.
I think mindfulness is more about removing the distractions to rather than the development of the 6 qualities and more. Imagine if the windshield of your car was dirty and you couldn’t see out of it. Now imagine if the windshield was clean and you could fully embrace the landscape. Addition by subtraction…… Lets keep it simple.