A Fresh Look at Impact Mindfulness

Every year brings both the good and the bad…this one hasn’t been all that stellar for me, I’ll readily admit.

But, it’s been a learning experience!

Next year will mark some really big changes in my life. I plan to move to Portland, Oregon.

Isn’t that big enough?

I plan to take the Oregon bar exam and re-enter that profession, albeit with a far different motive, after a decade long hiatus.

OK, now we’re really talking.

Oh and I’m sure some other big and unexpected changes will come along the way.

I’ve been writing in this blog now since January of 2013…two complete years.

It’s been a slow go.

I still believe wholeheartedly in the message, but it’s hard, damn hard, to attract the attention of anyone else.

I guess what with the 152 million other blogs out there, that’s completely understandable.

Nevertheless, I believe the message of this blog can and should resonate with someone…in fact, a whole lot of someones.

So, I’ll keep slugging away until it does…pissing off some and, hopefully, delighting others with the message of Impact Mindfulness…

What’s that you ask?

A-ha, thanks for that invite to provide a fresh look at Impact Mindfulness!

It’s not that mindfulness is anything new or novel…

everybody’s talking about it.

And if you follow almost any of the lifestyle blogs out there, they usually get around to talking about the importance of an impactful life… as an afterthought.

But, I don’t know any of them who are putting it all together in the way this blog does.

Supplying the why…as I like to say.

Here I write about this “mindset” of impact mindfulness as resting on three foundational principles…

#1 Prioritizing Impact Over Interest

I think this is where I might lose some people…and since it’s the first and perhaps most important principle…

that’s not a good thing.

So, let’s flesh it out a bit for a better understanding.

You see, I believe that many, perhaps most, of the problems faced by people and planet are self-interest oriented. We’re just too caught up in this overly materialistic world in satisfying the cravings of the self, or this ethereal entity we call ego.

Of course, these days you read a lot about minimalism and living sustainably as lifestyles that are less materialistic.

But the reasons often given to live such lifestyles tend to turn on self-interest. It’s all about me…my pleasure, happiness, fulfilment, dreams and desires. It’s about me having the good life.

Great! Nothing wrong with all that…unless it’s your primary focus for being.

Because I believe it’s not…our primary reason for being.

In fact, the only way that our world can get off the destructive path that it seems to be careening down at an ever-increasing velocity, is for plain folks like you and me to prioritize our impact over self-interest.

Self-interest taken to the extreme leads to greed. People and planet are suffering from the effects of rampant greed.

And I don’t think that there’s a government solution to this problem. You can’t legislate impact mindfulness!

I believe there has to be a mindset change solution…or…revolution.

One that prioritizes the impact of our choices and actions on the larger world over how those choices and actions promote our own self-interest.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Pogo daily strip, 1971

The change that will save this world is not out there…it must come from within ourselves.

#2 Embracing the Big US

We tend to see the world through the prism of group affiliation. We desperately want to belong there. We feel our very lives depend on that limited belonging. And that desire to belong causes us to adopt an “us versus them” mindset.

The people on the inside with us matter…those on the outside…not so much.

Anyone politically minded who reads just a little of my blog will readily identify me as a leftist progressive. I don’t like such labels, but I guess I’ll proudly wear that one. Because I believe those on the right suffer from an ideology that is isolationist and dangerous for the rest of the world.

It’s not just the right…you see it with groups like ISIS as well.

That is, the inability to recognize that it’s a big world out there and that you belong to it.

We once viewed our world in similar terms, until science showed us it was untrue.

Take the recent Obama action with regard to Cuba. The harshest opposition came from the right. Why? Because of the us versus them mentality. Cuba is the communist enemy of the U.S., right? We’re the whole and they’re definitely on the outside.

But that’s not reality. Cuba is just as much an integral part of this planet as we are. And the people there are suffering. And it’s in their best interest for this change in policy to take place.

Why can’t the right just see things in those terms?

Because they are too wrapped up in the ideology of us versus them. That’s how they see the world.

When the fact of the matter is that we’re all on this planetary ship together and until we begin to see things that way, to embrace the Big US, we’re going to continue to witness grave problems in our world.

#3 Removing Impact Blinders

I mentioned ISIS above when talking about the Big US. But the ISIS mentality also dramatically reveals the impact blinder problem.

You see, they believe their religion requires them to do the utterly inhuman things we’ve witnessed before our very eyes over the last year.

Religion!

Something that’s a complete fiction that they’re willing to die, and kill, for. It makes no sense, until you realize that religion is an insidious impact blinder.

And ISIS is not alone. There are millions of folks who suffer under the same delusion because of religion. And it motivates them to take action that is impactful for sure, but in a negative way to people and planet. Or, to do nothing at all, as they wait to be raptured away from this sinful and fallen world.

Now, granted, there are some who’ve been motivated religiously to have great impact, such as Mother Teresa, or MLK…but those are exceptions. And while religion may have been a motivating factor for them, I believe it was secondary to the impact they sought to make in this world.

Another impact blinder is blind patriotism and intense nationalism. It causes us, again, to view the world in us versus them terms. When George Bush stood at ground-zero and pledged death and destruction to those who had knocked our towers down, he unleashed a nationalist fervor that we now know resulted in America sacrificing long-held values…like not succumbing to the barbaric impulse to torture your enemies.

It motivated us to invade a nation under false pretences.

It completely blinded us to the fact that some 150,000 Iraqis were killed in that effort…compared to the tragic loss of around 5,000 Americans…but we only focus on the latter statistic…

Why?

Impact blinders.

I believe it’s high time we take those off and see things as they truly are.

The idea behind impact mindfulness presents nothing new. All this has been around in one form or another for a long time.

What’s completely novel is this singular mindset that brings them all together.

A mindset I believe the universe has implanted in my heart and has given me the burning desire to do the same in others.