[0:00]Today's exercise will make you more aware of your negative judgments. Our minds are constantly judging, categorizing, and labeling things. Sometimes negative judgments can be unproductive and trigger a bunch of negative emotions that make you feel bad and get in the way of dealing with the situation. Let's say you're at work and you see your co-workers going out to lunch together. You might make a snap judgment, nobody likes me. That's going to make you feel sad, lonely and jealous, and you might start feeling your energy fading. Now, that snap judgment made you feel bad, and it didn't help to change the situation. This exercise is going to make you more aware of your negative judgments, and in the next exercise, we're going to learn to let go of negative judgments.
[0:54]We are going to jot down our negative judgments. Print out the worksheet on the website. Now, whenever you notice that you're thinking in a negative and a judgmental way about events, other people, or yourself, you'll write that down in the worksheet. In the first column, situation, write down the situation you were in when the negative judgment appeared. Write down where you were and what happened. In the second column, judgment, write down the judgment. What were you thinking about? Write down the exact words that crossed your mind. In the third column, emotions, write down how you felt when you were making the negative judgment. Usually negative judgments result in negative emotions. If you ignore them, they may produce more negative judgments, and it's a vicious circle. In the fourth column, outcome, write down what you did after the situation. Did you achieve what you wanted? Were you feeling too angry or sad and didn't take the action you planned? For example, I'm trying to read a book at home, and it's too loud. I'm starting to judge the situation and my family members. I would write down under situation, reading a book at home and it's too loud in the house. Under judgment, I would write, my family is being inconsiderate and selfish. Under emotions I would write, anger and feeling irritated. And under outcome, I stopped reading, had an argument with my family and got even angrier. All right, do this exercise every day for a week. Try to write things down in the moment, but if you absolutely can't, do it at the end of the day. But it's not enough to do it in your head, you have to write it down to get the full impact and to anchor the experience. Share with me what you've learned in the comments. This was mindfulness of negative judgments. After you complete this exercise, it's time for part two, letting go of negative judgments. See in the next video.
