scholarly journals Becoming Fully Present in Your Body: Analysing Mindfulness as an Affective Investment in Tech Culture

Somatechnics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 353-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaana Parviainen ◽  
Ilmari Kortelainen
Keyword(s):  
Online Advertising ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Mindfulness Training ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Force ◽  
Buddhist Meditation ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Phenomenology Of The Body ◽  
Affective Influences ◽  
Working Bodies

Tech companies have eagerly utilised mindfulness techniques in order to increase both creativity and productivity among their managers and employees. However, while a growing number of studies within fields of clinical psychology and psychiatry suggest that mindfulness provides myriad health benefits, such literature does not critically evaluate the societal and affective influences of mindfulness and other wellness practices on working bodies. By focusing on discourses related to mindfulness training, this paper explores the conception of ‘being present’. Drawing on the phenomenology of the body, affect theory, and critical mindfulness studies, we develop a new theoretical framework for analysing mindfulness as a somatic and social force in technology-driven business contexts. Using research material drawn from the online advertising of mindfulness programmes for managers, this paper describes ‘presence’ as a new labour concept associated with the cultivated performance skill of the managerial body in the era of late capitalism. We conclude that mindfulness training – transforming the somatic into an affective investment – has transformed Buddhist meditation into capital that can be bought and consumed.

Substantiation the machine with a basket for the application of mineral fertilizers and other bulk materials with the upper arrangement of the feeding device

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
Fesenko, H.
Keyword(s):  
Fat Body ◽  
Mineral Fertilizer ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mineral Fertilizers ◽  
Analytical Mechanics ◽  
Bulk Materials ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Working Bodies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Stable Flow

Purpose. Increasing the uniformity of distribution of mineral fertilizers and other bulk materials due to the stability of their feed from the body to the spreading working bodies using the top feeder. Methods. The following methods are used to achieve this aim: the method of comparing the differences between individual groups of fertilizers, the method of analyzing the properties of a new technical system, the method of functional inventiveness, and the methods of theoretical and analytical mechanics. Results. The traction body of the conveyor of the upper feed of the body fat body machine for mineral fertilizers and other bulk materials was substantiated and the relationship between the height of its scrapers and the distance between them was established, as well as the nature of the mineral fertilizer pressure on the curvilinear wall of the body. In addition, the design of the advanced body fertilizer spreader is justified, which ensures a stable flow of fertilizers from the body due to the improvement of the top feeder. Conclusions. Because of the conducted researches, the advantages of machines equipped with top feeder are found. They create the conditions for the forced feeding mineral fertilizers and other loose materials from the container to the distribution bodies, which is a prerequisite for their evenness on the surface. With this, the imperfection of known machines with the top feeder constrains their introduction into agricultural production. On this account, a more thoroughly constructed solution of the body feeder of the top feed is substantiated, in which the conveyor provides a stable supply of fertilizers from the body with reduced energy consumption during operation. Keywords: analysis, feed, upper device, conveyor, stability, fertilizers, flow ability, body.

scholarly journals Medical Students’ Experience of Mindfulness Training in the UK: Well-Being, Coping Reserve, and Professional Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Malpass ◽  
Kate Binnie ◽  
Lauren Robson
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
General Medical Council ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mindfulness Training ◽  
The Body ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Medical Council ◽  
The Uk

Medical school can be a stressful experience for students, resulting in stress-related mental health problems. Policy recommendations from the General Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for improving medical education in the UK, recommend the use of mindfulness training to increase well-being and resilience to stress. Students participating in an eight-week mindfulness training between Autumn 2011 and Spring 2015 were invited to complete a free text survey at the end of their mindfulness course. In addition, six qualitative interviews were conducted lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. Interviews used a topic guide and were recorded and transcribed verbatim. We used the framework approach to analyse the data. Students reported a new relationship to their thoughts and feelings which gave a greater sense of control and resiliency, an ability to manage their workload better, and more acceptance of their limitations as learners. The small group context was important. Students described improved empathy and communication skills through building inner awareness of thoughts and feelings, noticing judgments, and developing attentive observation. The findings show how resiliency and coping reserve can be developed within medical education and the role of mindfulness in this process. We present a conceptual model of a learnt cycle of specific vulnerability and describe how MBCT intercepts at various junctures in this self-reinforcing cycle through the development of new coping strategies that embrace an “allowed vulnerability.”

Concentration and Visualization Techniques in Buddhist Meditation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobuyoshi Yamabe
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Form ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Buddhist Meditation ◽  
Esoteric Buddhism ◽  
Reflective Thought ◽  
Visual Approach ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Visualization Techniques

This chapter outlines the early form and development of Buddhist meditation. First, it discusses the “application of mindfulness,” especially “mindfulness of the body,” which can be largely classified into two types of practice. One is “mindfulness per se,” without reflective thought, and the other is a more reflective or visual approach. “Mindfulness per se” (in particular, mindful breathing) was transmitted to East Asia and remains the cardinal method there. The chapter discusses close ties between traditional mindfulness and Japanese Sōtō practice. It then moves on to describe meditation on the decomposition of a corpse, which is a representative form of the more reflective and visual type of practice, involving the observation of a dead body in its stages of decomposition. This is found in early scriptures. Later texts came to teach a more elaborate method of “grasping the images” of a corpse. A notable development in visualization is that the images seen by the practitioner came to include ones that were more enigmatic. The discussion finally turns to another significant development in Buddhist meditation, one which involves Buddha visualization. Its undeveloped form is found in early Mahayana sutras, but a fully developed version employing statues as aides for visualization is found in later meditation texts from the fifth century onward. This type of visualization was inherited by Esoteric Buddhism and is still practiced today.

Coda: Affect after the Affektenlehre

2020 ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Roger Mathew Grant
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Historical Investigation

This concluding chapter places contemporary affect theory in conversation with the historical investigation outlined in the body of the book. It finds within recent affect theory a certain musicality and a tendency to rehearse dynamics that once played out within historical music theory. This final chapter closes with a call to restore diachronicity and movement to affect theory: to think affect historically, and to therefore pay close attention to the movements between the objects and subjects that have generated it.

“Mindfulness Makes You a Way Better Lover”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Wilson
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Buddhist Meditation ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Almost All ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Ted Talks

American self-help authors, coaches, and sexologists selectively adopt and apply Buddhist meditation techniques to meet their goals and sell products. This chapter draws upon books, articles, podcasts, TED talks, and other sources to demonstrate how these new applications of mindfulness are touted to enhance the sex act, delivering greater pleasure or effectively managing dysfunction. Key concepts include analysis of the economics involved in the appropriation of Buddhist practices, the role of gender in the “secular” use of meditation (almost all books recommend mindful sex for women, but few focus on men), the mixed Asian and Western frameworks for understanding the body and the meaning of sex, and the alternate uses to which elements of Buddhism may be put in different cultural settings. A specific genre of the use of meditation serves as a means to explore secular developments that draw upon Buddhist sources in a sometimes uneasy relationship.

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