Recently the concept of being mindful was thrust into the viral spotlight by
TikTok transgender Latina influencer Jools Lebron, who showed her viewers conservative face make-up for work, coining the phrase “very mindful, very demure”.

Now, young people throw the phrase around in their descriptions, not necessarily understanding the concept of being mindful or the definition of demure.

Mindfulness as a practice is described as “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally, with an attitude of acceptance and curiosity”. It originated primarily from ancient Buddhist traditions dating back 2,500 years, where the concept is rooted in the Pali word “sati”, which translates to “remembering” or “awareness”.

The Harvard Business Review Press published a series of books on Emotional Intelligence, its applicability, being more productive in our daily lives, and how leaders should apply it when interacting in workspaces for better relationships and innovation. I have read most of the books, including the one on mindfulness, which is an interview with Harvard Professor of Psychology Ellen Langer.

For decades, Professor Langer, who devoted her research to mindfulness, is credited as significantly “influencing the thinking across a range of fields, from behavioral economics to positive psychology”. She concludes that by “paying attention to what’s going on around us, instead of operating on autopilot, we can reduce stress, unlock creativity, and boost performance.

In an interview, Langer points out that: Mindfulness makes you more sensitive to context and perspective. It’s the essence of engagement. And it’s energy-begetting, not energy-consuming. The mistake most people make is to assume it’s stressful and exhausting — all this thinking. But what’s stressful is all the mindless negative evaluations we make and the worry that we’ll find problems and be unable to solve them.”

She points out that there is never one way to solve a problem. However, a person’s natural tendency is the desire for stability and to hold things still. If we can control all the variables in our lives, things will flow better. But that is not true, as everything is constantly changing, and our desire to control ancillary causes us to lose control.

Therefore, we should never hold a hard-and-fast position to finding a solution because that is how it has always been done, or is a mirror of our reality. Still, the choices we make should depend on the current context. In other words, “You can’t solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. So when someone says, learn this, it’s second nature,” let a bell go off in your head because that means mindlessness.

Accordingly, your mindfulness will lead to innovation.

I have always described myself as mindful, always thinking outside the box, aware of my environment, and trying to bring ahead-of-the-curve solutions to intractable problems. I have never been an “autopilot” person, or the “let’s just do it to keep the peace” girl. I am the never-demure active disruptor.

I am also a girl who wants to know about her society, culture, and even the raw and visceral realities that motivate others. This is why I can get goosebumps listening to Bob’s Natural Mystic or Spice’s Suh Mi Like It.

Many of you have learned that I love reggae and dancehall music profoundly. This has been a deep-rooted love affair since I was a child. I know the lyrics to most of our iconic songs from old and new artistes across these genres. The lyrics are on my consciousness.

But I am very mindful of the meanings of what these artistes are singing, especially some of our more modern dancehall artistes whose lyrics reverberate with explicitly loud hypersexual scenes either as an enticement for others to follow or as a gambit to convince their rivals of their talents.

Whatever it is, most dancehall deejays suggest they are singing about what is already happening in our society and are merely a mirror of reflection. Okay, I can see their point. Perhaps this is how they are being mindful.

But I cannot help but feel sad about many of our artistes who don’t realise that embedded within their choruses resonates a chilling existence marked with their own experiences of being unloved, unwanted, and having the use of force as their go-to offence or defence to be desired or to survive.

Let us take the song Go Go by Rajah Wild aka Rat Bat. He is singing about visiting one of our popular go-go clubs and is very candid about the fact that his preferred choice is a girl that is not “shy shy” but must “like pop pill, she like to zone out” and “haffi whore out”. I cannot write all the lyrics to the song as they are very sexually explicit for this space.

It is a song I have listened to repeatedly and studied the lyrics, especially when he says this:

“Cuz man a sinna yuh fi know seh mi grow cold.

And if she nuh mucky is a no-no.

Nuh know nuh love, a just muckings mi know ‘bout.

A ratbat in charge stop it maamz

Weh yah go wid drawz…”

He says it plainly for all of us. His mindfulness is his awareness of the present moment and his acceptance and curiosity that he knows no love, but only “muckings”, which we Jamaicans define as nastiness, filth, garbage, and silt.

Therefore, my question is: What duty do we have in our own mindfulness?

Did he grow up this way? Or is it an assumed purposeful behavioural ‘rat bat muckings’ pattern for entertainment?

Whichever it is, we must be mindful of how these lyrics are disseminated and how they impact the thought process, awareness, and purposeful objectives of the upcoming generation as we have moved to an era of no filter and no censorship.

I don’t support censorship. However, if we want to continue pushing narratives of forceful, mucky, sexual and human relationships, what should be the counterbalance, and where should those be positioned so that young women and men understand there are alternate modes for love and sensuality?

I grew up listening to some of the most raw dancehall songs, and still do. Yet, I was mindful of my decisions because I had counterbalances. Let’s strive to ensure the mindfulness of the next generation to see these alternative avenues and pay attention in a particular way on purpose.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.

Lisa Hanna