Number five,
Naming thoughts,
Emotions and judgments.
Begin by finding a comfortable posture and by bringing your awareness to the breath.
Take a few moments to let yourself arrive and allow the breath to draw you gently into internal awareness.
Allow the gaze to soften,
The eyes to close.
Bring your awareness to the mind.
In this practice there are three things to look out for in turn,
Thoughts,
Emotions and judgments.
The aim of the exercise is to name these aspects of our internal awareness as neutrally as possible,
That is by noticing them without adding any drama or story or further commentary to them.
Begin by naming your thoughts.
For example,
Each time you encounter a thought silently say,
Here is the thought about my day,
Here is the thought about what I will do later,
Here is the thought about this practice.
For the next two minutes notice and name thoughts as they arise,
But otherwise add no energy to each thought.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next,
Turn your attention to emotions.
What do you notice?
What are you feeling?
Explore by naming emotions as they arise in your awareness.
This is sadness.
This is joy.
This is sadness.
This is joy.
This is sadness.
This is sadness.
This is joy.
This is worry.
For the next two minutes,
Notice and name the emotions that arise.
Try and resist the urge to analyze why the emotion is present and instead hold it within compassionate awareness.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Finally,
Turn your attention to judgments.
Ask yourself,
Where am I judging?
What am I judging?
Then name each judgment as it arises in your mind.
For example,
I'm judging my performance.
I'm judging myself.
I'm judging this exercise.
I'm judging life.
Spend two minutes here noticing and naming judgments as they arise and noticing silence if no judgments are present.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Take five more breaths as you bring this practice to a close.
Preparing gradually to reenter wakefulness and in your very own time,
Allow the eyes to open.
That was number five,
Naming thoughts,
Emotions and judgments.
Thank yourself for finding time for this practice.
And don't forget to record your reflections in your mindfulness journal.
