Mindfulness: from Mania to Meaning

This thesis critically investigates how mindfulness practices are evolving in the context of western capitalistic culture and addresses commodification of eastern meditative traditions of Theravada Buddhism into the current ‘mindfulness mania’ (Thompson, 2020). The ways to transition mindfulness from the corporatized and commodified version to a more meaningful and socially beneficial are investigated by analyzing phenomenological and cognitive psychology perspectives around consciousness and embodiment. This thesis examines 5EA and 7E cognitive frameworks, phenomenology of Heidegger (1962) and Merleau-Ponty (2013), novel interdisciplinary approaches of neurophenomenology (Varela, 1998; Noe & Thompson, 2002) and somaesthetics (Shusterman, 2008) in order to embed mindfulness practices in a wider societally meaningful context supportive of wellbeing (Thompson, 2020; Shusterman, 2008; Goleman & Davidson, 2017; Purser & Milillo, 2015; Qiu & Rooney, 2019).