In mindfulness discourse, the central problem is suffering. Life is full of unavoidable suffering: we can’t hold onto happiness, everything changes, nothing lasts, everybody dies, pain in inevitable, we are endlessly seeking and desiring without lasting satisfaction; an inner emptiness haunts our every moment. It goes on and on.

But wait: it gets worse! Piled on top of the suffering that is our existential lot as humans, there is the bonus suffering of modern life: all those toxins, all that stress, all that…television, source of:

“… staggering amounts of information, images, and sounds, much of it frenetic, violent, cruel, and anxiety-producing, and all of it artificial and two-dimensional, not related to actual experiences…” – Jon Kabat-Zinn (2013) p. 9204).

Is life really that awful?

Reference:

Jon Kabat-Zinn (2013) Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, Kindle Version, Revised Edition; Bantam Books, New York