https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10810430

Conveniently after finding a topic for my inquiry, a friend told me about this new docuseries on Netflix called The Mind, Explained, and it just happens to feature an episode on Mindfulness Meditation. Watching the episode made me realized I should probably mention Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga are distinctly different. Yet there is lots of overlap, being mindful of your body and breathing are important parts of yoga apparently.

The episode starts by introducing Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Midfulness meditation master who supposedly has intentional control of his brain activity. Demonstrated by FMRI scans of his brain which show his empathy activation in the amygdala able to increase by 700 %.  It goes on to present other  ways mediation can alter the mind, and has been used by psychologist to treat stress, anxiety, and depression. I am interested in the stress management aspect and increased focus that comes with mindfulness meditation.

It does touch on how mindfulness has to an extent been appropriated by capitalism in recent years, and advertised as a sort of cure-all. This has effected its popularity, but also its creditbility. An interesting technology related moment came up in the video as well.  Mediation apps Headspace and Calm both provide short mindfulness exercises for users to listen to and practice. They each have over 1 million subscribers and together are valued at over a $ 1 Billion. Highlighting how popular mindfulness has become, but also how technology is used in such diverse ways. Often we hear about how technology like smartphones cause people to live less in the moment, so its interesting to find the same technology being used to correct this. I’m downloading both the apps to see how they might guide my free inquiry or if they are just a gimmick.