Overturning a dysfunctional system

Instead of setting people free, mindfulness help practitioners adjust to the conditions that caused their problems and reinforce its destructive logic.

People are expected to adapt. Stress has been pathologised and privatised, and the burden of managing it is outsourced to individuals, causing the proponents of mindfulness to step in to save the day.

But mindfulness can only be effective if they accept that personal stress also has societal causes. Failing to address collective suffering and creating change to remove it reduces mindfulness to something that keeps people focused on themselves.