Mindfulness By Langer: An Analysis

Within the story Mindfulness, Langer attempts to explain to us the true nature of mindfulness. Langer says that mindfulness is separated into three categories which are being trapped by categories, automatic behavior, and acting off a single perspective. Mindfulness was explained to happen in everyday life and would mainly happen unconsciously. When you are put in a certain situation, you wouldn’t have the answer. In the future, you may find what you’re looking for, but you are stricken with questions relating to “Why on earth, you say to yourself, didn’t it occur to you to do that? (12)”. Mindfulness is something everyone experiences in some type of way and the message that is trying to be explained within the book is that we are all affected
The meaning of this quote is explained in the next sentence when she says, “We experience the world by creating categories and making distinctions among them (12)”. If you were to think about this people always separated each other into categories. An example of this would be separating continents, ethnicities, heritages, class, etc. This happens in an everyday experience and there’s no avoiding it because we are raised to distinguish differences into categories. We are “trapped in categories” in other words because it happens unconsciously and the whole world does it. Langer also explained that the creation of new categories is a mindful activity, but it changes to mindlessness when “we rely too rigidly on categories and distinctions created in the past (13)”. Many outdated categories are fabricated in the past and new ones are necessary. The reason why we are trapped by categories is explained to be because of the belief that we are limited in our resources. Those that are limited are seen to be more valuable than something
She states that having a single perspective can generalize everything we do. Having a single perspective and not being open to differences would limit us. We are always given the idea that there is a single perspective throughout life. Langer explains that “If something is presented as an accepted truth, alternative ways of thinking do not even come up for consideration (36)”. It will dull our way of thinking and thus overall set up certain standards focused on outcomes. We are always following a specific set of rules that are given to us since the beginning by society. Following rules rather than changing things up can affect creativity that can outcome from an individual. We need awareness of several views other than our own can liberate us. Langer wants us to focus mainly on process rather than