The Dialectic

DBT is all about the dialectic. Here is one: mindfulness is good, mindfulness is bad. Both true.

There was a recent New York Times article about the downsides of mindfulness. It can apparently stifle the creative generation of solutions in certain situations and also decrease implicit learning of tasks. The implicit learning aspect had never occurred to me, but makes sense. But in my heart I always knew that my ruminations were a kind of creativity and worthy of existence and that mindfulness is great, but my brain was not designed to be mindful 24/7.

There is a balance to be had in most things. This is no different.

But I was very mindful driving home, which may have saved my life. I was driving on a back road that was still very snowy and icy. And then a deer stepped into the road. I braked right away- so I had a lot of time to pump the brakes (I don't have ABS) and not skid too much and not hit the deer. I stayed on the road. I made it home.

Winter driving is very mindful driving.