RE: Can I just say, and I'm just being honest...
November 27, 2016 at 12:50 pm
(This post was last modified: November 27, 2016 at 12:52 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
(November 26, 2016 at 7:19 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Mindfulness is not about focusing on one's thoughts. It is about establishing distance from one's emotions for the purpose of obtaining a more objective viewpoint ... With the object of letting go those emotions so that they don't define us.
True. But being mindful of our emotions and being mindful of our thoughts is very connected. When we notice we're feeling crappy we also may notice we've been engaging in negative self-talk for the past 15 minutes and believing every word of our narrative even when it's often a very biased and exaggerated perspective.
So maintaining an objective distance from our emotions is partially about being mindful of our thoughts/self-talk, I reckon.
I do find it helpful to be mindful of my thoughts... but only briefly. This is why I don't like meditation... I think it's only helpful to catch myself when I'm engaged in negative self-talk so I can redirect my focus to something more positive and rational.
So I think being mindful of our emotions and keeping an objective distance from them and being mindful of our thoughts and keeping an objective distance from them are very connected. Often I think our emotions are there to warn us when our automatic thoughts are on the wrong track.
Mindfulness is especially helpful for O.C.D. because O.C.D. is all about non-automatic thoughts straining to control uncontrollable automatic thoughts that the O.C.D. sufferer is overly averse to.
Now... whilst I think stopping to re-direct my thoughts to help get my emotions back on track and my mind more rational is helpful... I think my negative emotions are the best pre-warning for that purpose. My perspective is that emotions are there to let me know I'm off-track.
Now mindfulness of my experience as a whole as opposed to just my thoughts or my emotions... living in the moment. That's something I love.
This is just my take on it. We often are expressing the same viewpoints in different ways, hehe.