Mindfulness

Breathing techniques are abundant nowadays, through the dissemination of Buddhism and the internets. Simply by concentrating on breathing or in the tip of our noses we simply become more aware and able to reduce our stress, our heartbeat and our hypertension. But does this work? Does it affect our souls? Are we able to become more than our earthly selves? There are frequent references to those we are able to visit only in the after-life. Mindfulness does seem very simple and also slightly supernatural. We are strong and we are able, so the scriptures to tell us, and God is there to help us. Is the learning, the touch of an apple or the taste of some wallpaper able to transcend our problems, or our feelings? Will this mental exercise help our souls as well as it is supposed to help our bodies?

Some people think it blasphemous for it has its roots in Buddhism. There are many religions, many learnings, and of those you can pick whatever you want. Some are beyond help. Some beyond the help of Godly intervention. But all of us -we and them - are going to face St. Peter at the holy gates. There we will be a part of the questioning of good and evil. I hope we are all accepted, for the rejection is surely worse than anything we can go through in our lives. And I don't think mindfulness will help us then.