Mindfulness and slavery.

There are often posts on FL and other boards I've been on about spirituality and slavery.  These can be quite divisive, I think this is because people can become entrenched in some dogma or another, and then become defensive about it. I think this is a pity as I think the area is actually pretty interesting. I also think that there are areas of commonality amongst some people who experience slavery as spiritual, regardless of any ‘path’ they may be on, and there’s one in particular I thought I'd mention as I don't see it verbalised a lot.

I think that by default, the act of slavery moves many slaves to a state of mindfulness. I don’t want to go into a huge discussion of this, but maybe just have a cursory think about it here.

While a slave may worry about the future, to thrive as a slave they often have to ultimately surrender themselves to the core truth that the bigger picture direction their future takes belongs to their owner, and sometimes by default, this can force a slave to embrace living in the present moment.   

Similarly, being made aware of things as privilege can force a state of gratitude. Rather than taking things for granted, without considering or appreciating them, I think that having one’s mindset moved to a place of acknowledgement and gratitude can; in some people; alter perception of the very act of ‘having’ and thus being.

Perhaps the slave is made to perform tasks or jobs they would not have elected to of their own accord and thus decide that to thrive they have to find positives and joys in the situation. Because really, for a psychologically together person, how long can you go on whining about how hard done by you are, especially in a situation you chose?

Perhaps I’m biased regarding this as in crude ways mindfulness is very much part of who I am.  Every now and then I’ll make a bit of an effort regarding this, but a lot of it just comes naturally and I usually just refer to this as my ‘Pollyanna’-esque nature. Lest I accidentally fool any of you into erroneously thinking I’m some kind of enlightened, spiritually evolved being (snigger, don't worry, I doubt any of you are that silly) I should add that I think in my case this is one of those perks of having had a less that salubrious start in life – to a degree everything looks quiet bright and shiny after if you decide not to waste your time being a miserable ungrateful fucker.  

Here, I’ve found that when N embraces mindfulness (though he doesn’t think of it in those terms) he is ok. Content, calm, settled and at seamless ease with his world. He's pleasant to be around, and pleasant for himself to live in. It’s when he flips the other way, which he does radically and aggressively, that he is both unhappy in himself and unpleasant to be around.

I don’t know how widespread this phenomena is, but mindfulness seems to be a notable trait amongst a significant proportion of the slaves I know in successful, happy, long term relationships so it seemed worth considering.