A test for stress management techniques

I started meditating in the 70s, when I was around 14, and included working with a home EEG for biofeedback, breathing techniques - even trying out “The  Relaxation  Response” (and I see an updated version is now available). 

My contact with similar stress management techniques had started earlier, though, when my adoptive father had brought stress management guided meditation tapes home, and the whole family wound up laying on the lounge room floor visualising being fluffy white clouds.

This is one of the reasons that the fad of mindfulness grates: I have been aware of and actively practising such techniques for decades - often from before the enthusiasts proselytising - too often with toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing - that appropriated extract/cut down technique were even born. 

The fact that the technique has been appropriated, has been cut down, and is too often being misused to bolster abusive work practices such as excessive workload is manifestly grossly offensive. 

But that is not what I want to cover in this post. 

Before I get to that, however, I'd like to share something else: managing my back problems. 

In the 80s, I was given some exercises based on rotating my body as if I had a hula hoop, which had been a popular fad here (in Australia) in the 70s. In the early 2000s, my back problems had progressed beyond the stage of being managed by that, and I was given some additional exercises by a physio. Now, in the 2020s, I know I am going to need some form of surgery. 

The point about this is that techniques do not guarantee effective management of something for the rest of a life. 

Going back to my stress management techniques, my expert use of meditation and other techniques kept me going for four decades, even as work stresses increased dramatically in response to the spread of the evil philosophy known as neoliberalism, and my personal life circumstances changed to involve issues such as major illnesses and injuries to loved ones.

Going back to stress management techniques, however, one of the things we have to accept is a longer working life, and thus an increasing importance of looking after ourselves. 

As i said in my pre-retirement retirement speech: 

Young people now will, in general, live longer, and work longer, than any other human who has ever existed ...

That’s a tremendous opportunity to influence the world for better, but it also means taking care of yourself, taking care of your health and wellbeing, making sure you do work in a sustainable way, is also going to be more important than ever.

You also might need to consider a career change after 30 years or so, so keep that option open - and CPD will be more important than ever.

The techniques being promoted may have an inadequate period of effectiveness to be effective throughout a working life. 

If nothing else, after decades of techniques to keep working at an insanely frenetic pace, we may simply get tired of doing so. 

So ... my proposed test (or question) for all stress management techniques is: 

How long does your evidence show this technique being effective for - an entire working life, or something less?

 

See also: 

• “My pre-retirement retirement speech”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/05/my-pre-retirement-retirement-speech.html   
  

• “Another activism email - on management of mental health injuries including return to work in my home state”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/11/another-activism-email-on-management-of.html    

• “The (partial) cluelessness of (some) corporate advisors (1 - 2 min. read)”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-partial-cluelessness-of-some.html   

• “Corporate Mindfulness: Be Careful What You Wish For | John Beckett”   https://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2016/01/corporate-mindfulness-be-careful-what-you-wish-for.html   
  

• “Post No. 1,834 - the "final" aim of meditation”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2021/04/post-no-1834-final-aim-of-meditation.html   

• “Post No. 1,550 - Working with Other Meditation Styles”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2020/05/post-no-1550-working-with-other.html    

• “Post No. 1,573 - Evidence supporting meditation”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2020/05/post-no-1573-evidence-supporting.html  
  

• “The Problem of Mindfulness”   https://medium.com/aeon-magazine/the-problem-of-mindfulness-63d360556782   “Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos”   

• “Mindfulness is one of the fastest growing health trends, but it has a dark side”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/health/2021/04/24/mindfulness-mediation-research-selfishness   ““Mindfulness increased prosocial actions for people who tend to view themselves as more interdependent,” said Michael Poulin, an associate professor of psychology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and the paper’s lead author.   “However, for people who tend to view themselves as more independent, mindfulness actually decreased prosocial behaviour,” Dr Poulin said.   ...   In fact, in a Western setting, we may be more predisposed to the selfish downside of mindfulness”   

• “Mindfulness for adolescents backfires when it imposes moral ideals, stirs up trauma, or fails to treat young people as agents”   https://psyche.co/ideas/mindfulness-in-schools-can-be-tone-deaf-to-adolescents-real-needs   The tone deafness reminds of those people who wrongly think “merit  based” is free of discrimination ... 
  

• “Post No. 1,935 - Reflections: cop outs and insanity inducing work”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2021/07/post-no-1935-reflections-cop-outs-and.html   

• “Post No. 1,057 – The World: A Lamentation”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2017/08/post-no-1057-world-lamentation.html  
  

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.