Re: No-thing-ness in psychotherapy

Your reply leads me back to my observation. Mindfulness instructs the novice to numb himself to his feelings. I'm not sure whether this is what "skilled" practioners actually experience.

From my experience, detachment, if this is what I feel, doesn't require that I make an effort to fight my disturbing thoughts and feelings. I don't experience dissociation or depersonalization either, although the state which I reach is as clever and interesting state of mind as dissociation. Unlike dissociation, disturbing thoughts and feelings exist fully, I am able to feel them and experience them fully, I am able to react to them, and I am able to stay happy and peaceful--free from anxiety and depression. There's incredible clarity.

I have really hoped that I was missing something about mindfulness meditation. However, I can only conclude that most people, who already struggle to free themselves from anxiety and depression, are often being lead to create, or fine tune, a thought process that reinforces their angst. A thought process is being taught to override natural feelings, creating numbness and anxiety and depression.

I'm just wondering whether a better meditation for many people might be one that is more kinesthetic and less intellectual. I'm assuming that all meditation roads eventually lead to the same place, but if a depressed, anxious person, detached from his feelings, isn't fortunate enough to travel far enough down the road where the paths meet perhaps it's better in many, if not most, cases to put the emphasis on feeling rather than controling feelings with thoughts.

Replies:

Re: No-thing-ness in psychotherapy, by Dave Birren, 03/18/02

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