Spirituality Studies 9-1 Spring 2023 83 Russell Suereth most disturbing because it suggests that social categorization is infused into our daily lives. Research and studies show that mindfulness may help resolve the problems of social categorization. According to Anālayo (2020a, 2295), mindfulness enables us to monitor our thoughts, feelings, and actions continuously. Consequently, we can employ mindfulness to check our racial biases and tendency toward superiority. The expectation is a shift from harming others to a move toward responsible actions of equality in our everyday lives. Studies show that mindfulness enables greater optimism and reduces negative biases, which may help practitioners interact with others (Kiken and Shook 2011, 429–430). According to research, mindfulness enables those in prejudiced outgroups to be viewed more equally. In this manner, mindfulness can bring people together more effectively than equality efforts that originate through cultures or institutions (Lueke and Gibson 2016, 41). Additionally, Runco (2020, 49) suggests that mindfulness could help resolve issues of social categorization. He uses the term mindlessness to describe our cognition when it is categorizing. Overall, the associations of mindfulness described above indicate that novel avenues of resolving social categorization are possible in our everyday lives. 7 The Importance of Everydayness Mindfulness occurs in our everyday lives in several ways. First, it enables us to live in the here and now. In this way, we can enjoy each moment even if we only sit, walk, or eat (Sadri 2020, 20). This aspect of everydayness suggests that mindfulness can be a component of our interactions with others in every moment. Also, everyday mindfulness is not only about being attentive each day. Instead, it is also about being attentive to the mundane aspects of our day-to-day lives (Thompson and Waltz 2007, 1876). This everydayness suggests that mindfulness can be part of our interactions with others, even if those interactions seem small and unimportant. Additionally, the nonjudgmental character of mindfulness enables us to be aware of ourselves and others throughout the day with more openness and inclusion (Senker, Fries, and Grund 2022, 2795). The everyday is more than cooking meals and driving to the grocery store. Those activities are important in our everyday lives. However, the connection between the everyday and our sacred traditions is essential. The sacred provides meaning and understanding to our daily activities (Byrne 1991, 25). Additionally, sacred traditions enable space and time to contemplate the goodness that can exist in our daily activities (Volf 2017, 60–61). The connection between the everyday and our human existence is also essential. The everyday is infused into our human existence. Everything we do occurs in the everyday. As Pink (2012, 143) describes it, the everyday “is at the centre of human existence, the essence of who we are and our location in the world.” Even objects in our daily lives have meaning and an aesthetic beyond what we discern from a glance. Spending a moment considering an object: how it was made, where it came from, and who made it helps us make sense of things in our world and the environment we live in (Saito 2013, 243–244). We often take the everyday for granted and do not recognize it is where we work, play, and rest. Yet, it is also where we and others build our homes, families, and communities. Henri Lefebvre (2014, 157) focuses on the everyday in his book the Critique of Everyday Life: Thus bit by bit there is a growing conviction that in one sense lavish institutions and grandiose ideas were façades – theatrical costumes. On the almost stagnant waters of everyday life there have been mirages, phosphorescent ripples. These illusions were not without results, since to achieve results was their very raison d’être. And yet, where is genuine reality to be found? Where do the genuine changes take place? In the unmysterious depths of everyday life! In Lefebvre’s words, the phrases “genuine changes” and “unmysterious depths” stand out as pointed depictions of the everyday. The phrases delineate where real change occurs while succinctly describing the richness of the ordinary in our lives. Using mindfulness in the milieu of the everyday makes sense in the context of resolving social categorization. The everyday is where real change exists, as Lefebvre indicated, and where the challenges of social categorization transpire. 8 A Return to the Ordinary Not long-ago people sat together at a kitchen table and talked while playing cards for hours. Those occasions seem ordinary today, and they probably did then too. However, people cherished those times as real and significant moments in their daily lives. Today, we have moved away from appreciating the ordinary moments in our lives. Perhaps the barrage of internet information has diminished our ability to pay attention to the ordinary real world around us (Hinson
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