Is Mindfulness a Bunch of Woo-Woo, or a Serious Science?
What happens when Spiritualists and Scientists play a fun improv game of Yes, And. . .
Storytime
I liked my therapist, until he asked me to take a psychological test for him.
He said it would help him understand me better.
He said he needed it for diagnosis purposes.
I don’t need a diagnosis, I just need a safe place to talk through the messiness of my divorce.
The questions all had only two choices. A big game of choosing this, or that. I couldn’t do it. None of the answers felt right.
It depends. . .
I could choose both answers equally.
Neither answer fits, at all.
After ten minutes, I told him I couldn’t take the test. He told me to try anyway, just choose the answers that felt closest. We couldn’t move forward until he had the results. Being the “good student” I am, I wanted to please him, to get it right.
The next session, he didn’t give me any time to talk. He spent 45 minutes reading through the results with me. He talked at me, starting every sentence with the word “you”. He kept asking, “does that resonate” and I kept saying no, or not really.
At the end of the session he suggested that maybe the day I took the test I didn’t really show up honestly. He said that in order to help me, he needed an honest assessment, which meant he needed me to take the test again. The good girl in me made the appointment for the next week.
That night, I went to my first ever improv performance. Before the performance the host of the show took a moment to explain to the audience the one basic rule of improv.
Yes, and…
Improv is about collaboration, and about adding to each other’s narrative. The actors are bound by the rule of “yes, and. . .” in that every suggestion one actor makes, the rest of the actors accept “yes” unconditionally, and then their job is to add “and” to the narrative. The process is inclusive, collaborative, evolutionary, and exponential in nature.
The whole performance, my brain flashed back to the questions on the psychological test. I got angry.
Why did I have to choose this or that?
Why couldn’t it be both?
Walking out of improv that night, I called and left a voicemail for my therapist, canceling the next week’s therapy session. I never went back.
Lesson
We live in a dualistic world: day or night, light or dark, good or bad, right or left, etc.
As such, our brains and our experiences in life tend to categorize things - everything - into some form of duality. This or that.
And I have spent my entire life not quite buying into the duality of existence, seeing the possibilities and potentials of Yes, AND. . . in everything. Enjoying the in-betweens of the dawns and dusks in any situation or circumstance.
One such common duality is the concept of Science and Spirit.
I know a whole community of psychics, astrologers, and yoga teachers who roll their eyes at the scientists, saying they just don’t get it.
At the same time, I know plenty of scientists, mathematicians, and medical professionals who roll their eyes right back at the shamans and energy healers.
Put them all together at a dinner party, and they’d be spouting their separate and contradictory truths at each other, each trying to convince the other that they are WRONG.
But what if WRONGNESS doesn’t exist?
What if you had a moment to sit down and share a sandwich with Albert Einstein, or Nicola Tesla, or Stephen Hawking? I bet they would agree that Science and Spirit is big fun Improv game of Yes, And. . .
I believe that MINDFULNESS and living mindfully is a Yes, And. . . game of recognizing the validity and value of BOTH spirituality and science.
Take-Away
There is no right or wrong, only right or left.
~Malidoma Patrice Somé, Dagara Shaman Elder
Life shouldn’t be about choosing between this or that, and separating everything into two opposite boxes…which inevitably leads to competition.
Life could be a beautiful improv game of yes, and… which inevitably leads to cooperation, collaboration, and a mutual respect for evolution and growth.
In today’s A Mindful Life Mini-Lesson (for paid subscribers), I explain some basic laws of science as spiritual truths.
The Spirit of Science
energy is neither created nor destroyed
for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
AND, I explain some common spiritual “woo-woo” concepts through a scientific lens.
The Science of Spirit
Reincarnation
The Law of Attraction
Auras & Chakras
FINALLY, I offer one very simple Mindfulness Exercise to get your left brain (science) and your right brain (spirit) to work together in oneness.
*usually Mini-Course content is for my paid subscribers only. This month, the mini-course lessons are open to free subscribers too! Enjoy.
Mindfulness Coaching
One of my favorite things to do in my world (besides writing) is to work one-on-one with clients, helping you to live a more mindful life. If you’re interested in living more mindfully…
Comment
I’d love to hear your perspective on the duality of the world, and how you mindfully work to live in the oneness.
I've never had much luck with therapists. I felt like they didn't "get" why I was there and I quit all of them.
Mindfulness on the other hand...it saved my life the last few years. Being hyper aware of my surroundings and mindful that so much beauty and calm exists, and to drink it in and use it fully.
The therapist seems to have had a brain fart, when he clearly didn’t understand your first response to that test. Glad you walked away. You outgrew him.
The other thing this post brings to mind is when Thich Nhat Hahn was speaking with the little girl whose dog died.. have you seen that one? It’s achingly beautiful. Let me see if I can find it; ah yes, here it is. https://youtu.be/PKv95cdgC_g?si=sk2MsPBO5QXr_tjQ