AmiSight 9/28: When Something Good Isn't Good for Everyone
I have always thought of meditation as one of those things that is simply good for you. This article made me think twice.
Researcher Willoughby Britton started out as a strong believer in meditation and set out to study its benefits. Instead, some of what she found surprised her. While there is plenty of evidence that meditation can help people, research also suggests that for some it can lead to anxiety, insomnia, dissociation and other negative effects.
What struck me wasn't really the meditation. It was the reminder that we have to be careful when we decide something is universally good. Exercise is good. Hard work is good. Persistence is good. Meditation can be good. But that doesn't mean every one of them is right for everybody, in every situation, or at every dose.
Sometimes we spend so much time asking whether something works that we forget to ask an equally important question: When doesn't it?
Worth a read: The Dark Side of Mindfulness — The Atlantic
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