BEING COMPASSIONATE AND NON-JUDGEMENTAL [MENTAL HEALTH] ARTICLE 1, 2

Article 1

When Dawn first did exercise above her mind was very judgemental . She had a sense of wanting to resist being in the present moment and, when she did focus momentarily on her hand on her belly, she was taken aback by how crtical her thoughts were. ‘I am overweight , gross ; I need to lose weight . I’m not getting this. Everryone else can do this, but I can’t – I keep being distracted.’

When we are being mindful we open ourselves up to the present moment as it really is , without getting sidetracked by our usual pattern of negative thinking or self-recrimination, or by our tendency to dwell on the past or future. This is not to say that thinking will stop -it won’t . because thinking isv what our minds do.

Instead , mindfulness means that when we do have judgemental thoughrts about…