Self-Esteem

It might be tempting to think that we can, somehow get rid of all the negative thoughts that come into our mind whether they are about ourself or about someone else. But if it was that easy simply replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts we would have done that a long time ago. And it's actually quite exhausting trying to do that. Got me crazy, a lot of conflict, a lot of inner inattention. So, this exercise rather than doing that is more about stepping back and seeing our thoughts with a little more clarity, a bit more distance, a bit more perspective. So we no longer have that bias of good thought, bad thought, pleasant thought, unpleasant thought, and instead we simply see them as thoughts. We recognize that we're not our thoughts, we're not our feelings, we're not what we look like, what we wear, what we do, that there's something beyond all of that beneath all of that. And this exercise helps us really kind of touch that place rest in that space. It's almost like a quiet confidence which underlies all the business and the noise of the mind. In these first 10 days, we're gonna start with a technique called noting, where we simply label thinking is thinking, feeling is feeling. It may sound incredibly simple, but what it does it starts to create a little bit of distance between ourselves and the thought ourselves and the feeling. So we don't get so involved in it, and it creates a more restful state of mind. As always I'll guide you through the exercise as we go. But to begin with, just take a moment or two to get comfortable, however, you're sitting. As always just starting with the eyes open, looking forward, a nice soft focus, aware of the space around you and when you're ready, just starting with some nice big deep breaths breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. I'm with the next out breath, just gently closing the eyes now, as you allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm in and out through the nose. And in closing the eyes just feeling the weight as a body, pressing down. Feet on the floor, hands on the leg. Then also starting to notice any sounds around you both those loud and quiet. And as you just bring the attention back once again, to the body now. Starting to notice how the body feels right now, starting at the top of the head in the usual way to scanning down without trying to change anything, just noticing how the body feels. And then scanned down towards the toes, just starting to notice the subtleties of the breath. Whether the breaths are the long or short, deep or shallow. I'm trying to change the breathing in any way at all, just observing the natural rhythm. And in your own time starting to count and the breaths as they pass one...