Day 62 – Are your 'shoulds' true?

Today we're looking closer at the thoughts that show-up during highly reactive moments. These thoughts will feel especially true, as they're backed-up by a tidal wave of emotion. Your job is to investigate the unconsciously held seeming 'truth' of them.

What are your 'shoulds'? Any issue that sets you off is probably going to come with some strongly held positional thoughts about the way things should be. Notice the special intense flavour of the thoughts that occur during moments of "I don't like this!" or "I want that!"

Part of holding on to how things should be involves rejecting how things currently are – rejecting the truth in favour of your imagination/thinking. Your job in mindfulness practice is to observe and accept the truth of things as they are, and only then get busy trying to change things, if you want.

PRACTICE

Observe your thoughts when you're emotionally reacting (this is not necessarily easy!). Are they familiar to you? See if you can take your attention away from focusing on how things should be, and instead find some acceptance (4-part Breath) around how they are – the truth of the matter.