Important Message From The Moderators

[FeeHutch]

Following discussion between Gareth, Jon and myself we have taken the decision to ban the poster known as OmniPada from the Everyday Mindfulness forum.

We have come to this decision because we had all received feedback from a lot of our regular community members telling us they found this persons posts condescending, confrontational and confusing among other things.

We all tried to engage Omni and appropriately challenge this behaviour without success. This is not a decision we have taken lightly but we believe this situation has already gone on for too long and is having a detrimental effect on the community as a whole.

To reiterate, Everyday Mindfulness is a secular forum which has grown around the secular field of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. We are currently reviewing and expanding our guidelines for each section to be more explicit in order to help avoid any confusion in the future. MBSR is founded in science rather than spirituality. Enlightenment or striving for enlightenment are not a part of MBSR.

We are sorry that we allowed this situation to dominate the forum so much. We did attempt to engage with Omni and raise the concerns we had but these attempts were not met with understanding or openness. We are already learning from this experience and will take these lessons forward, as a community, to try and avoid a repeat of this.

Everyday Mindfulness is not yet 1 year old, we are all learning together and building this community together. We thank you for the mindfulness you have shown us and hope you experience the same from us.

Your feedback and thoughts are always welcome.

[Vixine]

I'm pretty new here but I just want to say I sighed with relief when I read this. I was considering that this forum might not be a good thing for me right now because I was actually getting preoccupied by the whole thing, I was so annoyed. I think you guys handled it as well as you could have. You can't take the the decision to ban someone lightly and I personally feel it came at just the right time.

[BioSattva]

I sighed with relief when I read this.

Me too.

We did attempt to engage with Omni and raise the concerns we had but these attempts were not met with understanding or openness. We are already learning from this experience and will take these lessons forward, as a community, to try and avoid a repeat of this.

I think you timed it perfectly actually.

MBSR gives people a resilience that more 'spiritually' inclined practices don't appear to have - maybe because the whole daily stress-reduction dimension isn't emphasised as much in other practices. That resilience we have can mean apparent confrontations can be given more space to become clearly understood before action is taken.

I really hope Omni is OK, actually. All I can say is, welcome to MBSR, Omni - we don't need to rely on mysterious stuff anymore to get benefits from mindfulness.

I think a key lesson about Acceptance can be gleaned from all this - I have a blog post in the pipeline titled 'Acceptance vs Pro-Action'. Acceptance doesn't mean one accepts any force acting upon one - if that was the case one would 'accept' gravity and collapse. Inclusivity - an acceptance and inclusion of others does similarly not mean that one accepts another person attempting to force one into submission.

When we sit in an upright posture with dignity, our postural muscles are engaged - we aren't just balancing on our bones, so to speak, we have tension within us - healthy tension - dignity. Even though we are relaxing ourselves and allowing unhealthy tension to be released, there is always an inner tension - an intention - which is acting subconsiously upon our muscles keeping us upright. The ancient Chinese referred to this hidden inner tension as the dynamic essence which lies behind living organisms - observed in a bamboo or pine tree springing back up after snow has been piled on to it in Winter, or delicate beautiful plum blossom growing out of a gnarled old tree - emphasising that there is always this intention within living organisms to express a dignified beauty. TaiChi and related arts seek to bring us more in line with this natural dignity we hold within us.

Giving in to bullies is not in line with our inner tension - we instinctively never have the intention to do such a thing, and if we become sensitive to our subconscious 'healthy tension' we can monitor difficult situations and act more appropriately and manage one's energy - sensitively identifying the true nature of the difficulty and conserving resources until one's inner tension - one's dignity - brings about pro-activity.

Well done Mods! The snow has been shaken off, and we can spring back all the stronger!

And Omni, if you are lurking here, thank you for donating your energy to this place - it is here to help people, just like you want to.

Bio.

[piedwagtail91]

i think you've done the right thing. i don't expect it was easy.
i was beginning to dread coming on here.
i felt it could be really off putting to potential new members.
i just want to hear other peoples experiences, pick up tips, see others ways of being mindful and learn.
and that's been the case for the most part.
thanks.
mick

[JonW]

Thanks Vixine, piedwagtail91 and BioSattva.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
This hasn't been an easy decision. There's a difficult balance to strike between allowing members the freedom to say what they like and maintaining the tone of the forum as it moves forward.
We felt it was important to make a mark in the sand at this point.
All best, Jon

[FeeHutch]

Thank you all

[Steve]

I think you have taken this decision mindfully. Decisions are often difficult (and there may be no right or wrong decision) but if approached mindfully and then taken, that is good.

Steve

[Gareth]

Beautifully put Fiona.

We wil learn from this experience and move forward.