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What is in a Orange?

During the beginning of this year, I felt like the foundations of my life were being shaken. I had been a religious person, the kind the media likes to hate. I had been attending and serving in a non-denominational church for six years and found myself being challenged by their leadership. Several years back, I picked up a book about depression and something called "Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy." I have clinical depression and any kind of relief is welcome for me. I had found that with a past in meditation MBCT began working very well for me. I didn't attend a class or anything, I just picked it up by myself. I wrote about this form of therapy in a mental heath recovery book called "Hearts Linked by Courage" for the Canadian Mental Health Association. In this book my brief story tells how 'mindfulness' is really helping me cope with my depression. Unfortunately, this practice is what got me in trouble with an elder at my church.

I was on Facebook, and posted a picture of a Time magazine cover photo in my news feed and an elder from my church commented about this saying to the effect "Stay far away from this!" I immediately knew what he was talking about because I had run into the same opposition from a christian back in 1999 after admitting to them I practiced transcendental meditation. This was before I was baptized in 2007 long after I had given up meditation. It played an important role in my life in my 20's up until the point where I was hospitalized for depression. After I was released from the hospital is when someone thought it was my meditation practice that caused my depression, linking TM to demonic sources. Not fully understanding where this person was coming from, I didn't hesitate when they wanted to take away all my meditation material and helps back in 1999. Since then, medical science has proven many beneficial things about meditation, and it is even recommended by the physicians.The church is still stuck in the past and being part of the church myself now, I am kind of stuck too.

Part of getting unstuck, was learning MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) for depression. I immediately felt a release from my pain, so when the elder confronted me I knew that it was something I wanted to keep in my life. Unlike my TM practice, I began meditation again for medical reasons. I fell in love with this practice and this time when confronted by a christian, I was prepared to stand up for myself. The argument that Christians should not meditate is unfounded in the 21st century. I knew all kinds of Christians who practiced yoga which by the way is related to meditation. In my training in the past, yoga was done to prepare the body for meditation.

My point is that times have changed and so has science and there is no need for Christians to fear this anymore. The argument goes something like this, "Mindfulness is a Buddhist practice and is in opposition to the word of God." By the way, this can be spiritual abuse and if it is, as a christian I apologize. This is Mike. At the time I wrote this I had a very confused idea about mindfulness meditation. 

Mindfulness meditation is a spiritual ‘form’ of focused concentration which can be used as a spiritual exercise or for secular reasons that is not a part of church theology. As a result, I would warn any Christian from practicing it seriously. 

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