{"id":8908,"date":"2017-01-25T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=8908"},"modified":"2017-01-21T09:13:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T14:13:29","slug":"is-mindfulness-overrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/01\/is-mindfulness-overrated.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Mindfulness Overrated?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8911\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2017\/01\/sad-468923_1920-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"sad-468923_1920\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>Ann has been unhappy and anxious regarding her current life circumstances. Her husband left her for another woman. As Ann tries to cope with this harsh reality, the therapist tells her to stay present, to live in the moment and practice mindfulness. While Ann has tried this several times and come up short in terms of her new reality of living single, the therapist continues to push this strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Ann is frustrated, feeling that the message from the therapist is&#8211;try harder to rid yourself of this unhappiness. Be more mindful and you will find contentment. Yet, her husband&#8217;s actions have\u00a0daily implications\u00a0on her past, present and future life.<\/p>\n<p>While mindfulness techniques teach contentment in the moment, they do not help people problem-solve real life problems. Ann can calm herself when she starts to feel anxious, but she also has to deal with the fallout of the affair and the way it will affect her future. Feeling unhappy isn&#8217;t simply a reaction to the moment. It often involves a serious of situations and events that require action and response. Right now, she is blaming herself for\u00a0not staying present and doing better with mindfulness.<\/p>\n<p>Is\u00a0Ann&#8217;s self-condemnation an overreaction to the hype around mindfulness? A\u00a0large <a href=\"http:\/\/effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov\/index.cfm\/search-for-guides-reviews-and-reports\/?productid=1831&amp;pageaction=displayproduct\">meta-anlaysis of mindfulness<\/a>\u00a0found\u00a0small\u00a0benefits to\u00a0mindfulness use\u00a0when compared to people who had\u00a0no treatment. In other words, despite the popularity of mindfulness programs and techniques, the data\u00a0calls for more research to see if there is a lasting and measurable benefit. No advantage\u00a0was found using\u00a0mindfulness over other therapeutic techniques. The review of data indicates that we can&#8217;t make the grand conclusions about mindfulness that are being made.<\/p>\n<p>So for Ann, she needs additional help navigating through her current life stress. She\u00a0doesn&#8217;t need to feel that if she doesn&#8217;t practice mindfulness right or enough, then she is somehow to blame for feeing anxious. The root of Ann&#8217;s stress isn&#8217;t wrong thinking. It&#8217;s her husband&#8217;s unfaithfulness. The consequences reach\u00a0into all parts of her life-\u00a0past and future as well as the present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ann has been unhappy and anxious regarding her current life circumstances. Her husband left her for another woman. As Ann tries to cope with this harsh reality, the therapist tells her to stay present, to live in the moment and practice mindfulness. While Ann has tried this several times and come up short in terms&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913,914],"tags":[135,972,1328,57,55,17],"class_list":["post-8908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-couple-relationships","category-family-relationships-2","tag-anxiety","tag-couple-relationship","tag-infidelity","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness","tag-stress-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Mindfulness Overrated?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/01\/is-mindfulness-overrated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Mindfulness Overrated?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ann has been unhappy and anxious regarding her current life circumstances. Her husband left her for another woman. As Ann tries to cope with this harsh reality, the therapist tells her to stay present, to live in the moment and practice mindfulness. While Ann has tried this several times and come up short in terms&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/01\/is-mindfulness-overrated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-25T11:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-21T14:13:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/01\/sad-468923_1920-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Mindfulness Overrated?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/01\/is-mindfulness-overrated.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Mindfulness Overrated?","og_description":"Ann has been unhappy and anxious regarding her current life circumstances. Her husband left her for another woman. As Ann tries to cope with this harsh reality, the therapist tells her to stay present, to live in the moment and practice mindfulness. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8912,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908\/revisions\/8912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}