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You know mindfulness has fully penetrated the mainstream when it lands a starring role in a TV drama about the meditative dismembering of a mobster by his morally vacant lawyer. So begins Murder Mindfully, a darkly comic satire about navigating the stresses of modern life with a not-so-delicate blend of three-step breathing spaces and extreme violence. Each episode serves up training points on mindfulness that are neatly woven into the unfolding predicament of the main character, who uses his newfound awareness skills to keep cool and stay alive. By not taking itself too seriously, this show is one of TV’s most illuminating depictions of the promises and perils of modern mindfulness.
Now that ‘mindfulness’ is firmly established in our cultural lexicon, a pattern has become clear in how the broadcast media engages with this most mutable of concepts. A recent and worthy example is Mindfulness Manual, a three-part documentary streaming on Netflix and the latest televisual treatment of mindfulness following the inane Headspace Guide to Meditation and the awful Mindful Escapes. The bar may be low and Mindfulness Manual might even have elevated it slightly, but this programme rarely deviates from the same tired templates the media is keen to exploit. If you are considering watching it, here is a brief dissection that might give you pause for thought.
In 2013, when the mindfulness programme at the Palace of Westminster was established, its architects brimmed with hope and expectation. A radical transformation of politics was envisaged, with the UK at the heart of a family of mindful nations. Two years later, rhetoric undimmed, the Mindful Nation UK report gushed about pioneering a National Mental Health Service “to support human flourishing and thereby the prosperity of the country.” Not much evidence of any of that, is there? The gift to the nation turned out to be a decade’s worth of tame self-management programmes that have barely dented the status quo.
The UK Parliament recently celebrated 10 years of mindfulness at Westminster with a report, Mindfulness in Westminster: Reflections from UK Politicians, which examines the impact of mindfulness training on MPs, members of staff, and the wider parliamentary culture. One in 10 serving MPs and 800 employees – equivalent to a quarter of the current workforce of the Palace of Westminster – have taken part in mindfulness courses since 2013. Mindfulness is now a well-established presence in the halls of power. There is talk of a dedicated meditation room as part of a multibillion-pound overhaul of the parliamentary estate. Have you noticed what a difference mindfulness has made to the nation’s elite political institution?
Many people who learn mindfulness on courses such as MBCT and MBSR derive sufficient benefits to continue practising long after their basic training. Some go more deeply into phenomenological enquiry through meditation. Some channel mindfulness into creative and compassionate engagement with the world. Some do both. But others do neither, instead getting stuck in cul-de-sacs of aloof passivity and self-absorption.
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February 2025
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