Depending on your cultural outlook, it could make you more self-centred.
It’s your moment to take a breather and reflect. It’s also that time in the day when you close your eyes and try to clear your mind of all its thoughts and worries in an effort to maintain happiness and sanity in what can often be a chaotic (and sometimes cruel) world. Right now there’s a moment of silence just for you.
Mindfulness has been touted by experts as something that not only feels good, but that could actually increase your lifespan. So, how could it possibly be bad?
The problem is, if you’re too mindful. As with just about anything, getting the right dose of mindfulness or meditation is key researchers are now saying, and too much of is actually something you want to veer away from. Why? A recent study has shown mindfulness can actually make you more selfish.
Why people practice mindfulness
So, let’s step back a bit. One of the reasons people practice mindfulness is to become less emotionally engaged. This can sound like a bad thing, but it’s really about being less reactive and more in control of your emotions. So, for example, if you find the minor bumps of daily life such as spilling your coffee at the breakfast table, or having to search your home (once again!) for your house keys before setting out for the day, are something that make you really angry, taking some time to meditate regularly could be useful for you.
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Through meditation you learn to be more calm. The goal is to let your thoughts drift into your mental space and to let them leave, without judgment. You are actively trying to clear your mind of all thoughts when you meditate. Should some drift in, (as they normally do), the idea is to not get frustrated but to let them go without reacting emotionally. Eventually, you can potentially grow to be less reactive, in general.
And it comes with additional benefits. Mindfulness has also been shown to help increase your concentration, your memory, and your mental plasticity. Obviously, the practice has its plus side.
How mindfulness heightens your ego
There are drawbacks to practicing mindfulness, however. One of those has now been discovered to be an over-heightened sense of self, otherwise known as being selfish.
A post on BBC.com outlines how, depending on your culture and your self perception, practicing mindfulness can backfire. In a study led by an associate professor in psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Michael Poulin, it was found that when people who have an independent view of themselves meditate, they become more self-centered.
Poulin describes how in Asian cultures, such as in India and China, people tend to have what’s called an ‘interdependent’ view of themselves. When asked to describe themselves, they label themselves in a relational way. They are an aunt, an uncle, perhaps a neighbor. In Western cultures, such as in Europe and North America, we tend to describe ourselves in ‘independent’ ways, however. We describe ourselves as being ‘funny’, ‘fun loving’, or ‘the life of the party’.
When people who have an interdependent self-view meditate, Poulin’s study showed they tend to become even more focused on the welfare of others. They become even more altruistic. Unfortunately, when independent westerners practice mindfulness, what follows is a bigger ego. Westerners become much less concerned with others and even more focused on themselves. Poulin goes so far as to say that taking mindfulness out of its original context (Asian culture) and plunking it down in the middle of a Western society has the potential to create a moral failing and a “monstrosity”.
Should you meditate?
So, should you dump your meditation practice altogether? If you find it really helps maintain your sanity, probably not. Poulin advises that it’s probably wise to know about the potential ramifications it can have for some individuals, however. If you find you care less and less about others, especially after a good ‘sitting’, you might seek out additional healthy ways to destress, and focus less on meditation.
For more on how to deal with stress, click here.
photo credits: ananyaa Pithi/Shutterstock.com
