{"id":2920,"date":"2013-04-03T05:39:19","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T09:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=2920"},"modified":"2013-04-03T05:39:19","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T09:39:19","slug":"the-war-on-mindfulness-a-google-tastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2013\/04\/the-war-on-mindfulness-a-google-tastrophe.html","title":{"rendered":"The War on Mindfulness: A Google-tastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hello Readers, this blog post comes from one of my students, Cricket Cooper. All of my students have been invited to post a guest blog entry. For my \u00a0musings on all you can eat buffets see my blog post from the summer of 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recently, a friend of mine lost a significant amount of weight, under a doctor\u2019s supervision, by taking a controversial appetite-suppressant drug.\u00a0 It is one of those miracle cures with which many people have experienced astonishing weight loss, and so it\u2019s popular despite its dodgy reputation.<\/p>\n

The tricky part, for my friend, is that although she\u2019s at a comfortable weight, she\u2019s nervous about stopping the drug.\u00a0 What will life be like without it?\u00a0 What about all those folks who lose huge amounts of weight, only to gain it right back\u2026 and more?<\/p>\n

So I was thinking that a Mindfulness approach to eating and stress might be a wonderful support for her, loosening her feeling of need for the drug while helping her find new ways to roll with life\u2019s inevitable ups and downs.\u00a0 With high expectations that I could find a support group near her, I \u201cgoogled\u201d the name of the metropolitan area in which she lives, and the words \u201cMindful Eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

What I got, in this order:<\/p>\n

1) An ad for a steak house<\/p>\n

2) An ad for a website that included some helpful mindfulness books to purchase<\/p>\n

3) A website of an author\/life-coach gal whose work looked interesting, but whose website focus was on Christian entrepreneurs\u2026 something that would not appeal to my friend<\/p>\n

And<\/strong>\u00a0(drum roll, please!)<\/em>:<\/p>\n

4) A list of all-you-can-eat restaurants, in the town in question<\/p>\n

REALLY?\u00a0 Hello, is it just ME? \u00a0Is there anything mindful about an all-you-can-eat restaurant?\u00a0 \u00a0It is so easy for me to forget that just because it seems like there is fresh research every day supporting the efficacy of a mindfulness approach to life, just because everywhere I look I see information supporting mindful meditation and awareness\u2026.. nevertheless, my experience is not the \u201cnorm.\u201d\u00a0 I live in a hip little New England city, where every menu I peruse has vegan and gluten-free options, where you can grab a cushion at a downtown meditation studio on your lunch hour and sit in silence with mindful strangers, where professional people commute to work on bicycles~ during snowstorms that would close down Washington DC for a week!\u00a0 I\u2019m surrounded by like-minded people, moving gently through their days, mindful of the power of words, actions, thoughts.\u00a0 \u00a0In my comfortable bubble, it can feel as though The World is Like This.<\/p>\n

When a search for mindful eating brings up a list of all-you-can-eat restaurants, I am reminded that although Mindfulness may seem ubiquitous right now, it\u2019s not yet mainstream by any means.\u00a0 At the risk of sounding like some creepy televangelist, help me get the word out to more people, invite more people into a fresh relationship with themselves, with their lives, and with this world.\u00a0 I want everyone who needs support to have access to willing and gentle teachers.\u00a0 I want everyone who is angry or depressed or lonely or hurting to experience the healing power of three deep breaths.\u00a0 Teach just one person how to spend more time eating that raisin than it currently takes to devour an entire \u201cHappy\u201d meal.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not ride this bubble down the back of the wave~~~ instead, let\u2019s take our energy and enthusiasm and use them to change the tide for good.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello Readers, this blog post comes from one of my students, Cricket Cooper. All of my students have been invited to post a guest blog entry. For my \u00a0musings on all you can eat buffets see my blog post from the summer of 2010. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2920\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}