[al_borland]

Mindfullness as a treatment for loneliness is strange to me. This doesn't actually help with the problem of being alone, it could just make someone be more OK with it.

As someone who spends a lot of time alone, one of my big fears is having a medical emergency, even just choking on food, and dying from something that would be easily avoided had another person been in the house. I've gone and looked up how to give myself the Heimlich maneuver on myself, and play out that scenario in my head all the time... or trying to get to a neighbor's house or just outside where someone might see me. Mindfulness won't help if this is how I meet my fate, actually community and relationships would.

[Herring]

It's quite a rare thing to die by choking. It just doesn't feel like it, which is where mindfulness can help. You do more dangerous things every day like walking (falls) and driving, eating (obesity), and brushing your teeth (gum disease), so if you want to work on prevention it's better to have a head that correctly assesses risk and spends your limited time/money/effort optimally.

[SirHumphrey]

But then choking is not the only health emergency when having people around is a plus. Even active people sometimes suffer from heart attacks and having someone being there doing chest compressions or at least calling for help leads to quite difficult health outcomes versus being found hours later. Same goes for strokes…

[al_borland]

Exactly. Many of the statistically more dangerous things are either chronic issues (obesity) or inherently in public (driving). Choking, a heart attack, etc are acute issues happening in private, which is where the fear lies. Some of those acute issues could be made more likely by the chronic issue, but not always. And if the chronic issues are known, a person can proactively get tests to hopefully avoid an acute issue. My dad just had a quadruple bypass, identified as a need based on a proactive calcium scan, rather than waiting for a heart attack.

[red_rech]

I had a mildly embarrassing shower fall that ended in a deep wound. I tried to sleep it off not realizing how bad it was and ended up having to get surgery. Because of the location of the injury, there was a big risk of infection.

I was alone, but luckily I was only 19 and healthy at the time. But I came away with a new understanding of the dangers of these things and whys there’s so much advertising to older people it. I can imagine a frail individual not surviving something like that if alone.

[al_borland]

Glad you were able to make it out ok. That’s another thing I think about often. I will often double back to grab my phone before I do something knowingly risky, like climbing on something. I don’t want to test how hard my survival instinct kicks in to find other means to get to help if left in a bad spot.

I’m thankful my dad is into tech and has an Apple Watch. He does a lot of walking, watch is good to keep him mobile. But just last year he stepped backward off a curb and fell in a parking lot. The Apple Watch went off and was ready to call for an ambulance had he needed it.

20 years ago he was worried about falls with his mom, he was thinking of solutions for this and wanted to make a device the seniors would need to check-in with every hour. A missed check-in would trigger a call to emergency contacts. The various monitors on the watch seem much more elegant and less annoying, while being a step up from Life Alert.

However, with the Apple Watch needing a smart phone, charging, and general know-how, I don’t see it as a viable general purpose safeguard for seniors. At least not for a while longer. I don’t think my would get a smart watch for fall detection, and she’s made some comments that worry me. I think she’s fallen several times and hasn’t really told anyone.

[Herring]

Yes, roughly speaking meditation is inner work. You are still gonna have things to do out in the world.

It's like someone advises you to go to the gym and you say but I drive everywhere. Yes they're not conflicting. In fact unless you live in a place like NYC or London, you need to be good at both.

[BobaFloutist]

I think probably the idea is that Mindfulness helps you make peace with yourself and trouble-shoot your personality, both of which could make it easier to make connections with other people.

[criddell]

Are people who lack connections with other people lonely by definition?

[jmkni]

"Mindfullness" only works for people who are already happy

[jimkleiber]

I think so much of it is our fear of dealing with conflicts and running away. Mindfulness, if it helps us have the courage to talk with people, apologize, forgive, and reconcile relationships with ourselves and others, can probably be super helpful. However, I think a lot of it has us actually move farther away from others, retreating into ourselves and then yeah, if you need someone to take you to the hospital, the relationships aren't there or aren't so immediate to help with that.

I think I feel you and I hope that if something like that were to happen, you would have people willing to offer and give that help and you'd be willing to ask for and receive that help.

[bookofjoe]

Here you go: https://www.bookofjoe.com/2025/09/my-entry-47.html