The life wonders of being mindful

Sir — It was with great interest I pondered on Brendan O’Connor’s worries regarding mindfulness (Living, Sunday Independent, February 17). He mentioned how mindfulness detaches us from strong feelings and thoughts, and questions whether this might result in a psychopathic tendency, an incapability of empathising with other people’s sufferings and difficulties.

Mindfulness has become a broad concept; from pausing to listen, taste or observe, to living in the moment and, perhaps mainly, to let go of our constant inner brain chatter to do so.

Can mindfulness lead to an imbalance? Sure. Anything taken to its extreme can become a self-centred obsession, a prop up to feeling more important or accomplished than other mere mortals, rather than an aid to become more present to ourselves and the people around us.

Mindfulness is a wonderful way of life. I have found, however, that there are times when rather than letting go we need to address our negative thought patterns in order to deliberately access a more optimistic and hopeful point of view.

Positive psychology makes a scientific study of what we human beings do when we are well and happy; the skills we use, often unknown to ourselves. Some people have a natural awareness of these skills, use them without thinking but many of us need to learn these skills in order to maintain and grow our happiness and well-being.

I believe these skills need to be taught from an early age, and in particular in secondary schools where the academic pressures can compromise the well-being of young people. We only have to look at the selfharm, anxiety and depression sometimes leading to suicidal tendencies in young people. Michaela Avlund,

Wicklow Town