I was taught a little bit about mindfulness at various psychological institutions. I found it useful, so long as it was separated from its eastern religious roots. People I worked with usually didn't try twice to bring up the association with yoga or whatever. I once had a boyfriend who was a karate-instructor. He tried to teach me the value of eastern ways. That was even before I had become a Southern Baptist or gotten saved or anything. I had already begun to read my Bible all the way through, though. I wanted to know what it said before I made up my mind as to what I did or did not think about it. I had always been taught it in bits and pieces. When I read it all the way through, there were a lot of things that I hadn't known were in there.
But, anyway, now they're trying, according to the New York Times, to bring Mindfulness into the grade schools. I don't know what I think about this. Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16mindful.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 I'm afraid that rabidly antiChristian teachers, of whom there are more than a few, are going to use this as a tool to bring Eastern religion into our schools, or simply to make our kids consider all religion of equal worth since what they're learning at school that has come from Eastern religions is definitely worth something. Mindfulness is worth learning, but Eastern religions aren't in the same boat as Christianity. How can we teach Christian children to accept Mindfulness without accepting Eastern religions as equal to Christianity? Oh, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Mindfulness, as best I can remember, is just a technique for quieting the mind. I remember closing my eyes and concentrating on my breathing. There's probably more to it than that. I've been taught a lot of things, like paying very concentrated attention on my surroundings when I'm outside, smelling every smell, seeing the depth of each color instead of glossing over it all as I concentrate on my inner worries.
