The term McMindfulness refers to the soaring popularity of a form of meditation by the same name. Google launched their own programme long ago, with an amusing name to match (Search Inside Yourself), and one can find Mindfulness in many companies these days, big and small, as well as in hospitals, schools, prisons, and government agencies.
The reason why Mindfulness has entered the main-stream so well is simple - our lives are becoming more and more "connected", always-on, and fast-paced. This leads to increased stress and in some aspects, less well-being, calm and meaningful human connection.
Mindfulness is a mental exercise, in which a person learns to focus their awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and looking into one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It promises to increase well-being and calm. Great, right?
But is the soaring interest in Mindfulness sustainable? or is it a "bubble", like some claim Bitcoin is?
The intentions behind the Mindful movement are certainly pure - to bring more well-being, calm, compassion, connection and meaningful presence into people's lives.
But are these Mindfulness courses truly leading to positive changes in organisations? Some critics claim that Mindfulness can be used by corporations to avoid facing more challenging aspects in their treatment of employees, providing their employees a "mental patch" instead.
Buddhist critics of the Mindfulness movement say that by divorcing the mental practice from the deep ethical framework of these teachings, they lose the deeper transformative results of awakening. They also recognise that even slightly more mindfulness, wakefulness and well-being to any degree is a positive improvement.
Whether Mindfulness will "crash" or decrease in popularity from its peak, is still unclear, however in order to make sure Mindfulness doesn't simply fade away and does deliver on its promises, we could look deeper into its ancient origins.
Mindfulness was a core aspect in the Buddhist teachings, but it was just one out of many other important values and practices that can inspire positive change.
Some aspects that can be explored in addition to Mindfulness are:
Wise Speech in the context of work. How do we communicate feedback? How can we develop our skills of having difficult conversations, in order to align our speech more deeply with our personal and company values?
Wise Concentration - how do we cultivate more focus and concentration, in a fast-paced, always-on environment that may not be conducive to focus?
I certainly hope that the ever-growing popularity of Mindfulness leads to the maturing of that movement, rather than its decline.
If the Mindfulness movement is to lead to more positive change within organisations, its teachers and practitioners will have to take their own practice, and the movement, to the next level, and go "Beyond Mindfulness"