Meditation Mondays: Noting

Check out Meditation Mondays, an IG Live series led by my colleague Erica Rodas and myself, where we dive into the building blocks that will help create a foundation for your meditation practice. This week on February 15th at 6 PM we will be exploring Noting.

Noting aka observing is a skill that you may not even realize you are already amazing at! Observing comes naturally to us all, but we may not even recognize that we are doing it. 

Noting in meditation is when we begin to observe the thoughts in our mind. Remember when you said that your thoughts were racing and you couldn't turn them off? That is actually noting! 

When we observe the nature of our thoughts (ie: racing) and/or the particular thoughts that arise, that is again noting. 

What is different in noting during meditation is that our goal is to observe and not judge. For example, a person who is judging their observations may say, “I am bad at meditation because I can't turn off my racing thoughts”. On the flip side, someone who is non-judgmental of their observation may say, “I notice that my thoughts are racing and are making me frustrated”. 

In the second example, we simply note what is going on and how it is making us feel, whereas the first example is judgmental about our ability to successfully meditate. 

So why is noting in meditation so meaningful? 

While we are natural observers, many of us lack the ability to separate our observations from our emotions and judgments about ourselves. Noting is an incredible tool that takes patience and practice and can help build up our ability to notice our own patterns and judgments we attach ourselves to. 

The more we can fine-tune our ability to note, we can improve our understanding of ourselves, show ourselves compassion vs. judgment and improve our self-esteem. 

Amazing, right?

If you are wondering how this looks when put into practice check out the Meditation Mondays series @jennifermanntherapy on Instagram.