Noticing & Building Awareness Practice

This practice is an Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) based noticing practice that can be used for building awareness. It is guided by Psychologist, Clea Wallage who is a mindfulness based and ACT trained therapist based in Melbourne, Australia.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this noticing practice today. The objective of this practice is to build awareness around the difference between you as a human being and your thoughts. This concept can be difficult to grasp at first as we spend so much time in our heads and our thinking mind defines so much of what we do but in fact we are so much more than our thoughts and it is our thoughts that cause us the greatest suffering. When we are able to notice and recognize our thoughts as being part of our existence as human beings but not what defines us we are able to cultivate a stable sense of self amongst the turbulence that our thinking mind can create. So just settling into a comfortable position here eyes closed or diverted downwards taking a few deep breaths noticing the air coming in and out of your body noticing the feeling on your nose as you inhale the sensation that is caused by the air filling your belly and then noticing the feeling on your lips as you exhale taking another deep breath here in through the nose filling the belly and out through your mouth and turning your attention now to your thoughts taking a few moments here notice what you are thinking what thoughts are popping into your awareness can you isolate where your thoughts are located are they inside of you in your head or elsewhere if you're hearing your thoughts outside of you where are they beside you in front of you behind you above you and what do the thoughts look like are they words are they pictures do they have image associated with them do they have a sound and if so what do they sound like high-pitched low-pitched loud quiet do they sound happy do they sound sad angry and your thoughts have a color are they static or do they move around and now just watching with awareness this noticing of your thoughts noticing that there is a part of you that is noticing your thoughts and as thoughts arise within you once again noticing where they're located what they look like what they sound like and as you're as you notice your thoughts coming in and out of your awareness continue to notice that this part of you that is doing the noticing you as a human being does not change your thoughts change your thoughts flow through you but here you are observing them you as the observer the one that notices does not change and while your thoughts are a part of you they do not define you you are not your thoughts and now moving your focus back to your breath noticing your breathing the wave the flow of air as it enters your nose goes down to your belly and exits your body through your mouth and now notice any sounds that you can hear around you and slowly opening your eyes and coming back to the room looking around you and noticing what you can see notice that you are noticing