“Earthly things must be known to be loved;
Divine things must be loved to be known.”
Blaise Pascal
Mindfulness practice is the key to mental stability, emotional balance and a calm, centered, empowered presence. Learning to quiet the mind and noticing what you are noticing begins with choice and is mastered through practice. Thoughts, at the surface of our consciousness, give rise to feelings, which lie deeper. Noticing what we you experiencing in your body (sensing); what you are experiencing in your feelings, and what you are experiencing in your thoughts, is an awareness exercise. It requires your full attention.
What follows is another Noticing Exercise. In this exercise, I invite you to follow the same steps as in the first Noticing Exercise, Awareness is the Greatest Agent of Choice but this time I want you to pay attention and write down every positive, empowering, hopeful thought you have in one day. Notice the effect of the thought on your energy levels.
1. Write down the three highlights of your day. Events you experienced that made you happy – where you appreciated something or someone; that got you excited or where you discovered you were grateful….Most important, is to notice when you were noticing for awareness is the greatest agent of choice. Recognize how it happened. What preceded the event? What triggered the thought and what made it possible for you to become aware in that moment?
2. Do this exercise for one week or longer until you have a clear understanding of patterns of thought that bring you the results you want and the triggers that activate the thought pattern.
3. Review your list and identify patterns. What are the top three events that brought you the most joy and happiness over the course of the week? Write them down. Say them aloud. Write them down again. Illustrate them with an image and create a dashboard to remind you and help you focus your thoughts on the things that bring you the most joy.
4. Place the two image boards side by side on your wall – one with negative, self-denying thoughts you created from the first Noticing Exercise I posted, and the other with positive, self-empowering and inspiring thoughts and images, you are asked to create in this second Noticing Exercise.
5. Relax with a Healing Pause Meditation and take a long, deep look at them. Let it sink in without judgment or commentary. This is the mindset you’ve created
6. Now choose. Create an image in your mind of the kind of mindset you want to have, remembering to create an inner mental balance, overcoming the brain’s propensity towards a 5:1 negativity bias. That means your mind creates 5x the negative thoughts to 1x the positive thoughts…reflecting deep survival conditioning that, for the most part, is no longer needed. To correct this negativity bias, choose five times the kinds of thoughts and images that effect a positive emotional response for each thought that generates a flight, fight, freeze, stress response activated by the negative patterns of thought.
“Speak the affirmative.
Emphasize your choice by utterly ignoring all that you reject.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Developing mindfulness practices can benefit anyone with a genuine desire to create positive change in their lives. Coaching helps!
About Julia von Flotow
