Achtsam geht die Welt zugrunde | Folge 41 | Podcast | "Erschöpfung statt Gelassenheit"

Meditation, journaling, breathing exercises – more and more people are using mindfulness practices as a refuge from the crises of our time. But instead of leading to greater peace and inner strength, these techniques often drive people even deeper into the hamster wheel of self-optimization and exhaustion. Mindfulness is no longer just a personal practice, but has developed into an ideology that individualizes societal problems, portrays negative feelings as unacceptable, and further divides society. A book has emerged from the podcast. In this episode, Johannes Ahrens, the city pastor of Flensburg, speaks with Kathrin Fischer about her critique of mindfulness. A conversation about the difference between practice and ideology, the imbalance in the self-world relationship, the destruction of the world by financial and tech capitalism through the increasing financialization of everything, the feeling of growing powerlessness and the feelings of sensitivity and powerlessness, and about Martin Luther's definition of sin. 2:02 Mindfulness as an Ideology 7:24 Practice vs. Ideology 8:51 Distinctions in Mindfulness 15:02 Political Responsibility and Mindfulness 16:41 Neoliberalism and its Consequences 20:27 The Ideology of Mindfulness 27:29 Vulnerability and Outrage 29:47 Burdens of the Mindfulness Ideology 34:30 Collective Responsibility 37:26 Financialization and Living Conditions 41:25 Victims of Circumstances 43:48 Mindfulness and Resentment 45:21 Powerlessness and its Causes 50:19 Vulnerability and Community 58:11 The Illusion of Purity 1:04:09 Collective Social Beings 1:12:11 Communal Care 1:19:37 Criticism as a Solution 1:26:22 Intention versus Consequence Kathrin Fischer: Mindfully, the World Is Going to Ruin. How the ideology of mindfulness blocks social change. Berlin: Hanserblau, 2026 LinkedIn: kathrin-fischer-05825286/ Instagram: @kathrinwandafischer The episode on anchor fm: Mentions of terms and people: Jacob Schmidt: Mindfulness as a cultural practice. Bielefeld: transcript, 2020 Idem: Much ado about mindfulness. Munich: koesel, 2024 Luther quote: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incurva... German top tax rate of 95% in 1947: https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.698309... Church withdrawals in Germany: https://www.zdfheute.de/panorama/kath... Hartmut Rosa: Resonance. A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​2019 Annette Kehnel: We Could Do It Differently. A Short History of Sustainability. Blessing, Munich 2021 Idem: The Seven Deadly Sins. Humanity's Knowledge for the Age of Crisis. Rowohlt, Hamburg 2024 Costs of the suspended wealth tax: https://www.oxfam.de/presse/pressemit... Ann-Kristin Tlusty, Wolfgang M. Schmitt: It's Your Own Fault. Munich: Hanser, 2024 Ron Purser in the podcast "Exhaustion Instead of Serenity," Episode 2, November 2022: https://open.spotify.com/episode/71j8... Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 27, 2023. Ben Bukes: Thanks for the Delay. Approximately 4 million residential units in Germany are owned by institutional investors: https://www.private-banking-magazin.d... Andreas Reckwitz: Old and new middle class: https://taz.de/Soziologe-ueber-die-ne... Financial sector - 40 million euros per year for lobbying: https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/lob... "My power is made perfect in weakness." Apostle Paul from 2 Corinthians 12:9. Joseph Vogl. Episode 33 of the podcast "Exhaustion Instead of Serenity": https://open.spotify.com/episode/0bak... Private equity funds buy medical practices: https://www.finanzwende-recherche.de/... Hartmut Rosa; Situation and Constellation, On the Disappearance of Room for Maneuver. Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​2026 Arlie Hochschild: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlie_R... Rutger Bregmann: Moral Ambition. Rowohlt, 2025 Ulrich Bröckling: The Entrepreneurial Self. Suhrkamp, ​​2007 Maggie Schauer, Episode 29 of the podcast “Exhaustion Instead of Serenity”: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zqx... Andrea R. Jain: Love, Peace and Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality. Oxford University Press, 2020 Johann Hari: No Longer Connected to the World: The True Causes of Depression—and Unexpected Solutions. Harper Collins, 2021 Foundational Economy Collective: The Economics of Everyday Life: For a New Infrastructure Policy. Suhrkamp, ​​2019