The gift of noticing
I am going to share three noticing practices that I use, or have used in the past. These practices are different ways of tuning in to your needs so that you can sense, decipher, what it is you need - and what you then need to do next.
These practices do not themselves always offer up explicit answer; rather, they create the spaciousness to think, and notice what might be going unnoticed. They are also practices that cultivate the habits that encourage you to notice at other moments of the day. They allow you to start witnessing yourself, curious as to what it going on - at a physical, a cognitive and an emotional level.
These practices are by no means comprehensive, and do not represent the wealth of mindfulness practices that exist in this big wide world. I will provide my own experiences of these practices so that you can get a sense of whether they are worth ago. But your experience, no doubt, will be unique.
What I recommend is giving some/any of them a go - and seeing what effect this kind of practice has on you. I recommend you try them out as part of a daily or weekly routine, and see what happens. Doing any of them once-off might not give you the full impact. Aim to try them for a week and see what happens. They tend to create ripples that we cannot plan for or predict.
Collectively, I think these practices provide you with a gift. They offer you a chance to check in with yourself, and to notice what needs tending to next. These practices help you slow down, tune in and become a witness to your experience and behaviour. They remind you that we often live at pace, and at times, those ways chip away at our energy and resources. By slowing down to notice, we learn to put energy into things we really want and need in our lives - which in itself is an energising way forward. By slowing down, perversely, we are able to move at greater pace - proactively, not reactively.
Noticing your body and breath
Below are some audio recordings of a body scan meditation (one shorter, one longer) and a meditation on breathing. These are produced by a lovely meditation teacher called Selene Collins, who I really recommend. She has a live session on Instagram on Wednesday mornings at 7am if you fancy a regular meditation practice.
These types of meditation practice can help to find the present moment, and your breath within it. It is the starting gate of mindful practice, enabling a more enquiring and alert mind. Finding 10 minutes of breathing or body scanning practice every day can have some powerful effects - slowing down the sympathetic nervous system and encouraging a more enquiring mind.
Meditation and mindfulness practice is not about stopping the thinking, or ridding the mind of thought. Instead, it is about noticing how you are thinking - being able to notice that the chatter is turned up more from day to the next, or noticing the tone or quality of voice we hear when we actually start listening to the chatter. It requires you to witness how your mind is. In this way, this kind of meditation can provide a good foundation for noticing more generally.
Noticing your thoughts
One of the pillars of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is daily writing. Called Morning Pages, Cameron invites you to write, free- and long-hand and with no particular outcome in mind. All you must do is fill 3 sides of A4 with your writing. It might make sense, it might not. But what it will do is show you YOU. If you continue over periods of time, it will show you PATTERNS of your thinking. After prolonged periods of writing morning pages, you will get to know yourself, and all the many layers you are.
“Anyone who faithfully writes morning pages will be led to a connection with a source of wisdom within. When I am stuck with a painful situation or problem that I don’t think I know how to handle, I will go to the pages and ask for guidance.” Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
It takes me about 30 minutes, which is a big commitment for a mother in the mornings - usually getting breakfast and uniforms ready for little ones. But every time I do it, it offers me a chance to explore, and find avenues of thinking that don’t often get airtime. Sometimes it is a load of old rubbish, a to-do list, a rumble of a thought. And on other days, there is gold in that third page. I can’t write every day, but I do it as often as I can. It is always worth it and one of the habits I would like to embed more fully in my day to day.
“The morning pages, a flow of stream of consciousness, gradually loosens our hold on fixed opinions and short-sighted views. We see that our moods, views and insights are transitory.”
Just write, for 3 pages. That is the only instruction. Don’t worry about what comes up or out - just keep writing.
Noticing your emotions
Beyond the Morning Pages (which as I said, can feel like quite a big commitment) this habit is designed for other end of the day - a gratitude journal before bedtime. It is a simple thing, no frills. Simply jot down, in a dedicated journal, 3 things that you have been grateful for that day.
There is a host of research that supports the use of a gratitude journal to improve our positive thinking and self-awareness. It helps us tune in to what is going well (which is a generative state of mind), whilst helping us to loosen rumination and focus on negativity.
Barbara Friedrikson’s book Positivity sets out her ‘broaden and build’ theory. She claims that by focusing on positive emotion, we can broaden our horizons. In fact, we are able to see more widely and more creatively. By being able to broaden our horizons, we are also able to build our opportunities and capacity for increased positive thinking.
So simply by noticing things that have gone well in your day, you are opening up the possibility of increased positive emotion in all sorts of ways. It creates a positive loop. Thinking in this way doesn’t solve all life’s ills. However, it will resource you to manage better when you are stretched, challenged or under pressure.
For those who do not enjoy a regular writing practice (morning or evening) - what would work better for you instead? Growing greater awareness of our thoughts, feelings and actions is the basis to living a meaningful life. How will you achieve this instead - though walking, movement, creative practice, gardening, meditation…? If writing does not help you tune in - what does?