Today, the future of humanity and the biosphere lie in the balance. If you are reading this article, you are likely to be one of many who believe that collectively, we must find answers to the challenges we face if a better world is to emerge out of this time of great change. But how will collective action on the necessary scale be fashioned and sustained at a time when individualism and tribalism are rampant? Mindfulness provides one part of the answer to that question.
In the past, human beings evolved in small, closely-knit groups. We survived by collaborating, caring and sharing resources from day to day. The need to maintain trusting, intimate relationships often overrode the social advantages to be gained from acquiring power and status. Threats were sporadic, acute and potentially deadly.
Today, the sense of threat we face is very different. We have come to believe that our sense of self-worth depends on our ability to achieve our goals and adorn ourselves with the signs of success, so we are under a constant low-level threat to perform and gain approval. We exchange the emotional rewards of social connection with yet more distractions. We worry what others think of us, and fill the gaping hole that’s left in our emotional lives by striving to do better and buy more stuff.
