Mindfulness, another clever trick from Big Brother.

Breath innnn... breath out... empty your mind... be one with the moment... be mindful.

Mindfulness is seen as a form of spirituality that is accepted by Western culture. It's an inner journey to emptying the mind and it offers countless techniques for releasing stress and learning how to relax body and mind. Something we all desperately need in a society as the one we abide in. And where there is a great demand, an even greater range of suppliers emerge.

So these days it's everywhere. Magazines, social media, tv, apps, games, every one is practicing and learning about mindfulness and meditation. There have never been so many yoga teachers and guru's on this planet as today.

It's the greatest hype of the century and it became a big player on the market with its own fancy gadgets and lots of other merchandising.

A deal with Western society

Every day we count our hours. We are constantly hurrying because we never seem to have enough time for the things we need and want to do. The list is endless. Every day new things are added and the longer it takes to finish the list, the more we long for a break. A real break.

So we look forward to our weekends and yearly vacation. That's the deal we made with society. 75% of our time we do the job thing and the other 25% we are free to do whatever we want to.

Another big part of this deal worth mentioning is money. Time and money go very close together. Some even say that time is money. The relationship human beings have with money is quite odd. Money is a must-have if you want to survive. With money you buy everything you need, from basic necessities like food, clothes and shelter to the most useless luxury you can imagine. So 75% of our time we are busy earning this money by doing a job that helps society exist and grow.

Another thing we do to help society exist and grow is paying taxes with the money we earned by doing the job that helps society exist and grow. (Sorry for the repeat, just want to make something clear.)

We don't really like paying taxes to keep it all going, but social security and health care are a super big advantage so we don't complain too much. It's all for our own good because we are society so in a way we are constantly helping ourselves exist and grow. That's great! Isn't it! The rest of our money goes to other obligations like insurances, education, … and maybe there's something left to save or spend on ourselves. So roughly all money just moves throughout society in a constant calculated rotation. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Nothing to worry about. Until this flow is out of balance and strangely enough, it constantly is for most people. And in Western society this is probably the main source of stress, unhappiness and anxiety.

Luckily we still have the 25% of free time. Of course we all know that within this 25% at least half of it goes to other obligations and tasks like children, administration, pets, household, … all very important things that need our attention. Than there may be a hobby or two, some time for friends and family and the rest of our free time is probably spent on our couches watching tv or other screens.

For years this was an okay deal for most of us. There was less pressure at work so we had more energy left for our own time. Our yearly vacation was just long enough to forget about the tiresome job we do throughout the year. And after that vacation we even looked forward to going back to work. Why was that? Because we missed our colleagues or tv-shows? Because we were sick of spending time with our families all day? Because we didn't really know what to do with all that free time? Because we were too uncomfortable with doing nothing? Or because we were so used to the fast rhythm of society that we just couldn't get used to a slower pace? Not within that short term, that is.

So we turned back to our jobs, happy to be there and glad we were inside our comfort zone again.

Society wants more, more, more...

But every year life becomes more expensive and slowly, without too much resistance, the workload keeps increasing for every one of us. Burn-outs are a common thing of this decade and time has never been so scares. We're forced to give up more of our free time. Some of us even give up sleep because there have never been so many things on their lists as there are now. It's starting to get unbearable so change becomes necessary. And you know what? For some reason, deleting things from the list is never an option. Everything is on the list for a reason. That list is your life, your being, it's you...

...is it?

We can all become Buddha's!

And that's where mindfulness steps in to safe the day.

It will protect you from burn-outs and stress diseases. It will help you be happy and make everything go easier. It even promises you that you'll be able to finish everything that's on your list. Without any stress or anxiety. Just by being in the moment.

With an endless list of techniques you'll learn how to empty your mind. And eventually the goal is to...

just... stop thinking.

You'll be able to stop over-thinking and worrying about your endless list and lack of money. And the biggest advantage of it all is that you can practice it at any moment. So also while doing your job, household, administration... In fact, everything will be much more fun to do. Just stop thinking about it. You'll be satisfied and relaxed anywhere you'll go and you'll feel more like yourself again... you're 'true' self. All the time it will be 'me-time'. Finally a way to live a happy life. We can all become Buddha's!

Robot dolls

And there you have it. Another genius trick of the one and only Big Brother to avoid that we would wake up and start making big changes. He is the system and the system cannot change. He can only grow bigger and more powerful. That's the only thing he wants and he's got us to do it for him. He's got us under his control.

He, the big puppeteer, started to notice that his robot dolls were slowing down, getting mentally ill and tired and unhappy. Before we had the chance to think it through and realize that we stopped being human, he threw mindfulness in our laps.

It's perfect! It's genius! It's a cheap but effective way for us to simulate the effects of going on a short vacation. By emptying our minds we relax and worry less. So we start to see it as such a good and healthy thing to do. Less stress, less mental illnesses, less agitations... And than the icing on the cake: Mindfulness makes us believe that we're closer to being human than we ever were.

Well, the ugly truth is that we are voluntarily shutting down our minds and we are starting to believe that the process of thinking itself is very bad for us. Mindfulness turns us into robots. We are humans! We got a mind to think with! REALLY think. Not the conditioned way society taught us. Not the strings-attached way of thinking, led by our Big puppeteer. Not the way that is driven by emotions and wakes the monkeys in our brains.

No! Real, controlled, non-judgmental, truth-oriented thinking.

We should start abandoning Big Brother. Fight him. Cut loose the chains and strings. Stop being robots and start evolving into the human race we're supposed to become.

Our evolution has been delayed long enough now.

It took a great revolution to get stuck in this mess...

Now it takes a new one to get out.

Eva Nova Luna 💜