Jeremy Mohler

Writer and meditation teacher

The mindfulness movement has a class problem

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There’s an inside joke among practitioners of Buddhist-inspired meditation about the lack of working class representation in the growing mindfulness industry. “The Upper-Middle Way” is a play on the Buddha’s first sermon, which prescribed a middle way between the extremes of self-indulgence and asceticism. But a new study suggests that mindfulness can lower levels of anxiety and depression for those suffering most from American society’s extreme economic and political inequality.

Walk into a meditation studio or attend a weekend retreat and odds are almost everyone will be both white and white-collar. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while the percentage of Americans who practice meditation more than tripled from 2012 to 2017, black and Latino people continue to practice at lower rates. Those with a high school education or less, no matter their skin color, are significantly less likely to meditate.

As a meditation teacher, I hear people stress about finding their true calling, feeling disconnected from nature, or President Donald Trump’s latest Twitter outburst. Everyday problems, sure, but different than experiencing racism firsthand or not having enough money to pay rent.

It’s only when I teach at labor union offices—which I do to get out of the mindfulness bubble—that the conversation shifts. Workers say they’re grateful for having a rare moment to think about themselves. Less talk of spirituality; more worry about toxic managers, long commutes, and caring for children.

That’s what makes the findings published in October in the Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association so encouraging. Researchers at Georgia State University wanted to study the effectiveness of mindfulness practices with parents of young children living in poor communities, who, because of persistent poverty, unstable employment, and family disruption, often experience increased feelings of anger, depression, and anxiety. They led 15 parents from one of Atlanta’s poorest neighborhoods, all black and most women, through eight weekly lessons, including breathing exercises, practicing gratitude, and mindful eating. At program end, there was an increase in the parents’ self-reported mindfulness, particularly less reactivity and an improved ability to label thoughts. Also, self-reported levels of anxiety and depression decreased. A number of the participants said they enjoyed the lessons and expressed interest in deepening their mindfulness practices.

This fits with a bevy of recent findings that mindfulness can improve the relationship between parents and their children. Mindful parenting may lower the risk of child abuse, decrease anxiety and depression in children, and more. But that meditation can help those dealing with the highest levels of social and financial instability is especially promising given the mindfulness industry’s blind spots.

“Mindfulness, like positive psychology and the broader happiness industry, has depoliticized and privatized stress,” writes San Francisco State University management professor Ronald Purser in his recent book McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. To a growing chorus of critics of so-called “corporate mindfulness,” meditation is being wielded by the likes of Google and Goldman Sachs to pacify employees who otherwise might openly voice their stress and dissatisfaction. Rather than organize a union, employees are encouraged to do “self-care.” Instead of allowing more time off and paying higher wages, corporate executives learn “mindful leadership.”

That’s the rub when it comes to mindful parenting, policing, or any other change in individual behavior. Just like the fact that wearing body cameras has little to no impact on police officers’ use of force, becoming more mindful won’t end poverty, lower the cost of health care, or stop climate change. Only collective action with demands for systemic change will, what Martin Luther King Jr. called, “a radical redistribution of economic and political power.”

Nearly half of residents in the Atlanta neighborhood where the study took place live under the federal poverty level. Almost a quarter are unemployed. The neighborhood is considered a food desert and ranks third citywide for the number of individuals incarcerated or returning from incarceration.

Practicing gratitude, taking time to savor the taste of each bite of food, or noticing sensations in the body won’t help change these conditions for the study’s participants. Still, that they now have a way to ease some of their suffering that can be practiced for free almost anywhere at any time, can only help.

Free meditation cheat sheet

I’ve come up with a cheat sheet to help you start and stick with a regular meditation practice. Get it for free here.

Listen to my podcast Meditation for the 99%

On Meditation for the 99%, I take meditation out of faraway monasteries, expensive retreat centers, and Corporate America, and bring it to work, relationships, and, especially, politics. Listen everywhere podcasts are available.

Thinking of meditation as a ritual can help you make it a daily habit

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I say it three times every morning but would never post it on social media.

It’s one of those inspirational quotes people get printed in cursive and hang in their living room.

“Never wait for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion.”

“Never wait for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion.”

“Never wait for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion.”

After meditating, I say it low and slow like how monks recite mantras at Zen monasteries.

What this little ritual does is it allows me to learn what’s most important each day. As I say it, I listen for which part of me reacts the loudest.

Sometimes it’s the part that hustles to get the most out of life. Never wait, seize the day!

Sometimes it’s the part that savors the mystery of it all. Slow down and enjoy it.

Sometimes it’s the part that can’t stand cheesy bullshit, and I move on with my day.

A ritual’s value isn’t necessarily to remind us of anything in particular. It can simply be something to count on, a landmark in a journey we weren’t given a map for, a mirror to see how we’re doing.

If you’re cringing inside, just realize that capitalist society is filled with rituals—we just don’t think of them that way. That first cup of coffee in the morning. Happy hour after work. Sleeping in on weekends. These help us get through the grind.

But when I found mindfulness meditation, I found what I’d always been looking for: a ritual that could reliably connect me with myself and the life happening around me.

Because, let’s face it, capitalism causes disconnection. We hustle for the next paycheck, fantasize about our next vacation—if we’re lucky to be allowed to have one—and bide our time until we retire (again, if we’re lucky) to finally start doing what we’ve always wanted to do.

Meanwhile, those at the top of the food chain try to turn us against our coworkers and neighbors using racism, sexism, etc., to keep us fighting each other rather than fighting back.

Before I say that inspirational quote each morning, I meditate, usually on a cushion called a zafu (I like Carolina Morning brand) or at the edge of my bed.

There isn’t much to it. I’m sitting and doing nothing rather than doing something. I might watch the movement of my breath, listen to sounds, and feel my body’s sensations. Or I might just sit there.

But what emerges—most days—is an inner landscape of thoughts, emotions, sensations, judgements, opinions, voices, and personalities. I simply sit back and listen. I rest as the witness who is witnessing it all, who some might call God or consciousness or being one with everything.

I finally stop following my mind’s dramatic, contradictory whims, which allows me to connect—with what’s happening right here, right now, inside and out.

“What is a ritual?” Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho writes in The Witch of Portobello. “It means transforming something monotonous into something different, rhythmic, capable of channeling the unity.”

Free meditation cheat sheet

I’ve come up with a cheat sheet to help you start and stick with a regular meditation practice. Get it for free here.

Listen to my podcast Meditation for the 99%

On Meditation for the 99%, I take meditation out of faraway monasteries, expensive retreat centers, and Corporate America, and bring it to work, relationships, and, especially, politics. Listen everywhere podcasts are available.

How to handle overwhelming emotions that come up during meditation

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If you haven’t seen the documentary “The Work,” go see it, now. (It’s streaming on Kanopy, which is free with a public library card.)

It made me cry five times, at least—and I can’t remember the last time I cried.

The film’s subject is a therapy group in a maximum-security prison in California. Prisoners join volunteers from outside the prison to talk through grief, anger, and other painful emotions their experiencing.

I cried a mere 15 minutes into the film when a former gang member named Kiki breaks down because he’s never mourned his sister’s death. “I don’t want to bottle up that little kid, that little kid who used to cry when his daddy would whoop his ass,” he says, weeping and screaming as the other prisoners hold him.

I cried because I was reminded that every one of us hides our emotional wounds. We hide our pain behind anger, or our grief behind being a “real man,” or our resentment behind a pretend smile, or our loneliness behind another beer.

Even if your father didn’t beat you, or you aren’t a gang member, you’ve gone through trauma. You have wounds. You’ve been through some shit.

How your parents or caregivers treated you when you were young—even if they loved you deeply—shaped how you relate to yourself and others as an adult. As physician and addiction expert Gabor Maté writes, “Emotional nurturance is an absolute requirement for healthy neurobiological brain development.”

If your mother was stressed about work, or your father was an alcoholic, or there was conflict in the family, you were affected in ways that influence how you handle emotions today.

Get this: studies show that concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol are elevated in the children of depressed mothers. At age three, the highest cortisol levels were found in those children whose mothers had been depressed during the child’s first year of life.

No one can avoid the trauma of being an infant and relying on others to fulfill our needs. There’s really no escape.

That’s why mindfulness meditation, which gives us the opportunity to turn towards rather than away from our emotions, is playing with fire. This practice isn’t all peace, love, and productivity gains.

When we stop believing our own bullshit—the stories our mind comes up with to avoid feeling painful emotions—we can experience moments of relaxation, acceptance, and wholeness. That’s why so many people are drawn to meditation. But we can also experience what we’ve been hiding from.

“It’s very easy to overload your circuits,” says Willoughby Britton, a neuroscientist who studies meditation. “We have this idea that diving in is going to make us feel better. But often it can destabilize the system. It’s just too much, and it can be dissociating.”

So, what should you do if you’re meditating and out of nowhere comes a bout of sadness or anger or extreme anxiety?

Well, stop meditating and go see a therapist or talk with a trusted friend. You don’t have to turn this practice into a heroic performance like everything else in our individualistic, capitalist society.

But if you feel safe enough to step towards the flame, try to find a neutral feeling in the body. Notice the connection points between your feet and the floor. Feel the density of the bones in your hands. Follow the air as it travels down through your sinuses and back up again.

Once you feel safe, move your attention to wherever you feel that sadness or anger or anxiety, likely in the middle of your chest or your stomach. Feel the raw sensations—the warmth, the coolness, the tingling, the flow of energy.

If your mind goes to stories about the emotion—he’s such an asshole—let go of the thought and return your attention to the raw sensations.

If the sensations are overwhelming, return to that neutral place in the body. Go back and forth, over and over again. Eventually, the difficult emotion might dissolve—or it won’t.

Healing your wounds—doing the work—is a lifelong journey, so take your time.

Free meditation cheat sheet

I’ve come up with a cheat sheet to help you start and stick with a regular meditation practice. Get it for free here.

Listen to my podcast Meditation for the 99%

On Meditation for the 99%, I take meditation out of faraway monasteries, expensive retreat centers, and Corporate America, and bring it to work, relationships, and, especially, politics. Listen everywhere podcasts are available.