Up: [[Embodiment - Ground Curriculum]] Related: [[Quotes - Mindfulness]] Created: 2024-11-12 Updated: 2026-01-10 Mind awareness is mindfulness and cultivating the witness. It’s noticing your patterns, especially how they affect your body, so you can begin to make new choices. The more you practice steadying your attention, the easier it will become. It’s critically important that you notice with curiosity and kindness, not judgment. I like this: *Imagine noticing thoughts as an elder would notice a child playing in the sand — with curiosity, distance, and wisdom*. ### Pause - [[Statio]] - Breathe. Shift your attention to your heart and ask what it needs. Wait and listen. If the answer is complicated, ego and persona have gotten in the way. Things are always simple for [[The Self]]. #### Breath-Mind Check Our breath reflects our state of mind. Quick, shallow breaths are associated with mental activity and doing, while slow, deep and full breaths are related to calmness and being. Check in with your breath to see how your mind is doing. Remember to just notice, not judge. Also in [[Breathing]] ___________ ### Notice #### Notice with Bare Attention From *Becoming Safely Embodied* by Deirdre Fay Choose a spot to pay attention to. Either make a list of what you see or draw it. But just simple observations about colour, shape, texture and name. Another option is to listen to some music but just sounds, rhythms, volume, tempo, and the silence between the notes. #### Mark Making for Presence From Rachel Rose, art therapist Grab 2-3 different colours and some paper. Close eyes, take a few deep breaths. Choose one colour and make one simple impulsive mark on the paper. Close eyes, return to breath, make another mark with another colour. Repeat the process until the piece feels complete. Title it. This practices presence. __________ ### Naming Makes a Huge Difference If you can label a thought, you realize that it’s something that is happening within you, not something that you are. An impatient thought doesn’t mean that you are an impatient person. > [!Orbit] Tara Brach > One of the most compassionate and revolutionary breakthroughs we can have is to realize we are not our thoughts. #### Notice and Name Thoughts as they travel through your mind. Let the thought come, tag it with a name related to the feeling if possible (anxious thought, wondering thought…) or generally (thought, thought). Try to detect each thought without getting lost in it. Stay gentle, don’t get impatient with yourself or judgmental. Just tag and, after a few minutes, notice with curiosity which thoughts appeared, how many there were, and if there were any patterns. #### Thinking vs. Believing From *End Emotional Eating* by Jennifer Taitz Think of a thought that comes up often. If you treated the thought as a fact, how would you act? Note: A fact is substantiated with evidence. If you believed the thought was simply a thought, how would you act? ________ ### Dig a Little Deeper #### Question Your Thoughts From Martha Beck in *The 4 Day Win*, p.117 Only do this if you can stay at the level of noticing with curiosity, not judging. Martha recommends using this strategy at times when a thought causes what she’s calling a “disruptive response” such as overeating, holding your breath, or startling. Make two columns. In one, write the thought underneath the response. This may take some effort, but there’s always a thought under a disruptive response. In the other column, write why the thought might not be true. Don’t try to change anything. Don’t beat yourself up. Just notice. The idea is that you’ll start to recognize that what you think isn’t necessarily always true. _______ [[Reframe Negative Body Thoughts]] ___________ [[Two-Hand Dialogue with Your Body]] _______ ### A Comprehensive Process The Buddhist practice, [[RAIN, a Mindfulness Tool]] can help with all of the above