Mindfulness ‘can make you more selfish’

IT IS hailed as an antidote to the anxiety and stress of modern living – but mindfulness could be making people more selfish, a psychiatrist has claimed.

Dr Alison Gray, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the practice makes it easier for people to start over-analysing their lives and become ‘self-centred’.

She said support from a community, such as a religion, was more helpful.

‘In as much as religion is about binding people together, spirituality can become inward-looking and selfish,’ she told The Daily Telegraph. ‘In no way does that happen to everyone … But there’s a potential for it to become inwardlooking and basically self-centred.’

Dr Gray, who chairs the spirituality special interest group at the college, added: ‘When you look inside yourself what you find can be quite negative and quite destabilising, and so you need a community around you to help process this stuff and keep you healthy.’

Mindfulness, which the NHS describes as ‘paying more attention to the present moment’, is recommended by health watchdog NICE. It is claimed those who practise it can spot signs of stress and anxiety and deal with them properly.