Welcome to day 12 of Establish a Positive Mindset,
A challenge here on Insight Timer crafted to help you break free from negative thought patterns,
Overcome self-limiting beliefs,
And embrace a mindset of abundance and possibility.
Let's jump in to today's session.
Hello and welcome to Establishing a Positive Mindset.
My name is Nkechi Njaka and in today's session I will be sharing a bit about the impact of negative self-talk and how we can reduce or stop rumination as a way to help establish a more positive way of thinking.
I would love to start with some helpful definitions.
What is rumination?
Rumination is a repetitive thinking pattern characterized by the tendency to focus on negative events,
Unpleasant feelings,
Or uncomfortable experiences.
Other definitions would say that rumination or ruminating is characterized by overwhelming self-criticism and negative self-talk about one's failures and shortcomings.
It's also an unhealthy pattern of behaviors where we continuously think about something that has happened in the past to the point of seeing negative effects on our health and well-being.
Despite these variations in the definitions,
They converge on the premise that rumination is repetitive behavior or a pattern of thinking that is associated with negative feelings or the events that create these negative feelings and this may extend to include future consequences of these feelings and thoughts.
While rumination may serve some adaptive functions such as problem solving or emotional regulation,
Excessive or uncontrolled rumination is often associated with a range of negative psychological outcomes that which include stress,
Being able to manage stress,
And more severely depression and anxiety.
According to the Mayo Clinic,
There are four main ways that we ruminate.
They are personalizing,
Filtering,
Catastrophizing,
And polarizing.
Personalizing is basically when it's a it's not you it's me situation and then when that becomes our mantra.
So if something bad occurs,
We automatically blame ourself.
Another way that we do this is with filtering.
This means that we magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter out all the positive ones.
Another way that we ruminate is by catastrophizing.
This is automatically assuming and anticipating the worst.
Polarizing,
The final of the four,
Is when we see things either as good or bad.
We might think of this as a binary,
Black and white,
No middle ground.
It's the feeling that things might have to be perfect or we're a total failure.
Combating these types of negative self-talk patterns takes practice and mindfulness is a useful tool for noticing and extracting ourselves from the cycle of these unhelpful thoughts.
Mindfulness directs our attention back to the present moment.
It allows us to be with whatever is arising as arising.
This practice simply helps us to shift from rumination to presence.
Mindfulness also focuses on behaviors such as acceptance,
Compassion,
Openness,
Loving-kindness,
Non-judgment,
Curiosity,
And these qualities help combat the negative self-evaluations that are encouraged and supported by rumination.
Rumination also encourages hyper-vigilance and a responsive or reactiveness to negative feelings,
Emotions,
Experiences,
And psychological states.
But in contrast,
A mindfulness meditation can support our development of our awareness around our thinking and around our feelings and around our psychological states while also performing as a protective role and a supportive role against and with these states.
And so I invite us to transition into a guided mindfulness meditation practice,
One that supports our practice and pursuits of being with our experiences as they are in a way that opens us up to curiosity and wonder,
Awareness that is non-judgmental.
I invite you to find a comfortable way to be in your space,
A way that really truly honors the body in this moment.
And I'll begin by simply taking three breaths together.
So drawing the breath in through the nose,
Exhaling breath out through the mouth,
And again drawing breath in through the nose,
Exhaling breath out through the mouth,
And one more time inhaling in,
Exhaling out,
And arriving here and landing in this moment,
Finding a way to be as gentle that is easy and that is spacious.
Perhaps taking a scan of the body,
Just noticing where it might feel restricted or held tense and also noticing where it might feel easy,
Spacious,
Light.
Breathing here,
Breathing into the spaces that feel more constrained,
And breathing into the spaces that feel spacious.
And just following the rhythm and the cadence of the breath and as breath is occurring,
Just noticing what is here,
Noticing what is present,
Being with the body in this moment,
Being with the experience of this moment,
And again in this moment,
And again in this moment.
Drawing a breath in,
Bringing awareness to the breath again as you inhale,
Bringing awareness to the top of the body,
The top of the body and the space of the mind.
Just checking in here,
Asking how is the mind doing?
Maybe the mind feels busy,
Scattered,
Spacious,
Full,
Overwhelmed,
Mellow.
Just noticing what is here and allowing it to be as it is.
Drawing a breath in and bringing awareness to the center of the body,
The space of the heart.
Checking in here,
How is the heart doing?
The heart might feel heavy or tender,
The heart might ache,
Might be grief,
The heart might feel warm and loving and open.
And just noticing here,
Being with whatever's present,
Allowing it to exist as it does.
Not making the experience right,
Not making the experience wrong,
Just allowing,
Really appreciating whatever's here,
Whatever's present.
Drawing in breath,
Drawing in attention,
Awareness to the entirety of the body as you exhale.
Checking in here,
How is the body doing?
Maybe the body feels energized,
Maybe the body feels tired or sore or awake.
And just acknowledging what's present,
Acknowledging what is here and letting it exist.
Letting it exist here simply and uncomplicatedly.
Being with the body and being with the breath,
Noticing how you feel,
Noticing what you feel,
And letting that be okay.
And if any time the mind wanders away from what's occurring,
Back to the body,
Back to the body,
Come back to the breath.
We'll spend some time here just being with the inhale as we inhale and being with the exhale as we exhale.
You can feel the slight rise of the body when we take breath in.
We can feel the fall,
The softening of the body as we let breath go.
We're just going to stay with this sensation,
Few cycles of breath,
Just following the tide and the movement of the waves of breath as it's occurring.
Letting it be easy,
Letting it be spacious,
And doing our very best not to judge ourself or our practice.
Really being in a practice of allowing,
Really holding the lens and posture of curiosity,
Non-judgment,
Maybe even loving kindness.
Being with the body,
Being with the breath,
Noticing what you notice,
And allowing what you notice to simply be here.
We'll close this practice the same way we started,
By taking a breath in,
Letting breath go.
We'll do this two more times,
Inhaling in and exhaling out.
Last time together,
Inhaling in and exhaling.
When you're ready,
Slowly transitioning out of your practice,
Maybe fluttering the eyes open if they're closed,
Beginning to orient yourself in your space.
Taking a moment in this space of practice to be in inquiry around the practice.
You can hold the inquiry in your mind and in your heart,
Or if you'd like,
You can write down any thoughts,
Any experiences.
The inquiry is,
What did you notice in the practice,
And what do you notice now?
What,
If anything,
Came up for you?
What is needing your attention?
What feels important?
Just being with these questions,
Not thinking too hard,
Allowing them to arise.
As we close this practice and transition into what's next,
I invite you to share in the discussion forum something specific about your experience,
Maybe sharing a negative thought that maybe has come up in your days or an area of opportunity and rumination.
Maybe even noticing if there was a shift in the practice,
Or a shift that can be made outside of our practice together.
Moving away from rumination to participating in the present moment with possibility and abundance and positivity,
Or even neutrality,
Is a practice.
I invite you to take this practice and extend this practice into reflecting,
Keeping an awareness and a watchfulness of the thoughts that are occurring in the mind during the day,
And then seeing if there's an opportunity to shift from the negative to neutral,
Or maybe even negative to positive.
Thank you so much for your attention,
Thank you so much for your practice,
And thank you so much for being here.
