Last year Florida adopted the federal standard for evaluating motions for summary judgment. To prevail, the moving party must show “that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact.” You’re probably asking what reference to the summary judgment standard has to do with mindfulness. Plenty!

A popular shorthand for mindfulness is “non-judgmental awareness,” meaning the stronger our mindfulness the less likely we are to be judgmental toward others (and ourselves). In this context “judgmental” is different than being discerning and able to keenly assess situations and people to adjudge guilt or innocence or otherwise advance justice. Rather, it involves the gratuitous and often harsh evaluations that readily flow when we resist something about a person as when they do not meet our expectations. It also can apply to the opposite; something about the person or situation prompts us to extend the benefit of the doubt or to assume the best. In both cases, our view can be clouded by preconceptions, biases, and assumptions.

Most of us know what it is like to quickly form a judgment of another only to reverse ourselves after we gather more information. At the time, we are pretty sure we are right, trusting our intuition and ability to quickly read another person. Yet, it turns out we were mistaken. So too when we judge ourselves; often unduly self-critical or aggrandizing only to realize later we weren’t seeing things clearly. This takes place so often and so quickly it can pass by unnoticed. It rarely is useful and sometimes there is a serious price to pay for this miscalculation.