Impact Mindfulness When No One’s Looking

Normally I write about impact mindfulness in the public realm. That is, how what we do (or don’t do) impacts people and planet directly. Today I thought I would take the concept behind the closed doors of our private lives and talk about impact mindfulness when no one’s looking.

Even though doing so makes my face scrunch up like Louis C.K.’s when he’s about to tell a joke that touches on ground that is a bit, well, touchy.

Because I don’t like anyone prying around in my GD private life…and I suspect neither do you.

After all my private life is mine…it doesn’t impact anyone or thing else…or does it?

I believe that idea is worth examining.

We generally judge our private lives on religious grounds, don’t we? That is, whether or not our conduct earns us a ticket to the good or bad place. So the motivation for doing or not doing in private is more about what happens in the next life than it is about what happens in the here and now.

But I really believe that’s a shitty way to govern one’s private conduct. Based on what happens in some world beyond the present that we’ve been told about in a book that we don’t know for sure whether it’s full of it, or not? I mean come on…there’s got to be a better reason than that…doesn’t there?

Maybe so…and that reason could quite possibly be…

IMPACT.

Let’s use strictly as “hypothetical examples” (since lord knows you nor I could ever be consumers of such sinful activities) cocaine use and pornography. Actually these “hypos” could serve as crude substitutes for many other “sins” that we might potentially engage in privately.

So, what are the impact implications of recreational cocaine use? Well, I like to think of these impact implications in the private realm more along the lines of “impact reverberations” or “contributory impacts.” Sure, apart from my own health and sanity, my isolated use of cocaine doesn’t have much impact in the scheme of things. But it does contribute to the existence of a “trade” or industry that wreaks a whole lot of havoc on our world. Okay, maybe you are thinking it’s not the industry itself that causes the problem, but the illegality of it…I could get on that train with you. But let’s avoid all that since, as you’ll remember, this is just a hypo.

So, when you look at it along those lines, yes indeed my private action does have a public impact.

Same goes with pornography. I don’t know how you might feel about the idea of pornography being highly exploitative of the female, or a degradation of the sanctity of sex, but just in case you might feel that it has negative connotations for both…your consumption of it certainly does reverberate or contribute towards the existence of a fairly heinous industry.

I know what you’re thinking, since the same thought has passed through my rationalization-seeking mind. And that is, what I do doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. That’s the same rationalization one can make about not voting…that my vote just doesn’t really count.

Oh, but deep down inside we know that it does…

I have to tell you it pains me to write this. That’s because I don’t want this idea for impact mindfulness invading my private space. I would much rather keep it out there where the world can see…relegated to save the world and feed the hungry type activities. But really what we do, or are capable of doing, in the public space is in large part a reflection of what we do, or are capable of doing, in private. Since our private lives are a reflection, in large part, of who we really are. That is, our private conduct largely shapes our view of the person we see in the mirror each morning…and that’s an impact worth paying attention to.

Our private conduct largely shapes our view of the person we see in the mirror each morning…and that’s an impact worth paying attention to.

So, the point of this post?