Awakening Psychology: Investigating Everyday Life With Social Mindfulness

Abstract

In this case study, we reflect upon our experiences of developing practices of social mindfulness, framed and applied as research tools. Social mindfulness involves bringing careful attention to everyday conduct, although we subtly disrupt the common sense, routine, and expected ways of living our lives. This case study aims to help students understand and practice social mindfulness, as a way to “wake up” to how everyday life is produced as being “normal” in various settings—at home, university, and in public places—by subtly “breaching” taken-for-granted ways of living. We frame this social style of mindfulness meditation as a “post-therapeutic” practice, against the backdrop of broader traditions of ethnomethodology, and participatory and contemplative forms of social inquiry in Psychology and Sociology. We show the reader how to put social mindfulness into practice in everyday life settings as a psychological investigation. To better understand social mindfulness, we encourage the reader to try out the practices for themselves, offering guidance on how to conduct several contemplative experiments.