This week we add an awareness of your thoughts.

The Practice - 10 mintues

Step One

Start by taking a dose of your tincture. Next, begin your belly breathing. Then become aware of your environment through all your five senses. Notice what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, and what sensations you feel in your body. Take a minute to do this.

Step Two

Bring your awareness to your thoughts. Notice your thoughts without judging or labeling them as good or bad thoughts. Notice the characteristics of your thoughts. What is their speed? Do they have a motion? Is there a direction to the motion? Are your thoughts inside your brain, outside your brain, or in some other location in your body? Is there a sound to your thoughts? Is there an emotion to your thoughts? Simply observe.

Step Three

Experiment with the experience of thinking. Think as many thoughts as you can. Put more space between the thoughts. Speed them up; slow them down. Make them loud; make them soft. Make them sing-song. Make them high and silly. Make them low and spooky. Rather than getting involved in the meaning of the thoughts, just notice them as things you can observe and manipulate.

Do this with as many different thoughts as you can. Take the “Most Important Thought of Your Life,” and manipulate it like this. How does that change the reaction to the thought or its impact? Do this with the “Most Painful Thought of Your Life.”  What happens to that thought? Try this with other significant or repetitive thoughts you have and observe what happens. Do this for 5 to 10 minutes.

Step Four

Notice the separation between the you who is manipulating the thoughts and the thoughts themselves. Observe that you are not your thoughts. What does that do to your experience of those thoughts? What does that do to the experience of yourself?

Take a moment to observe that you are separate from your thoughts. There are the thoughts, and there is you observing them. What does that do to your relationship to your thoughts?

Step Five

When you are done, take in a nice deep breath, hold it for a moment, release it, and stretch your body. Then enjoy your day.

Step Six

As you go through your day, take a moment to notice your thoughts. If there are bothersome thoughts that are having an undesired impact on your state of well-being, take a moment to play with them and see how that changes your state of mind. Or simply observe the thoughts without giving them any meaning.

Step Seven

At the end of seven days, take a moment to think back on how this mindfulness process affected your state of mind or body. Re-evaluate the symptoms you listed in your 'State of Body' and 'State of Mind,' along with any perceived benefits from your extract in 'Tracking My Extract Benefits.' Enter these notations in the space provided for Week Three Experience on all sheets. As well, if you have discovered any changes or benefits not previously recorded, be sure to enter them in your 'Discovered Benefits' sheet.