Mindfulness Daily Check-In January 14, 2018
Hey, everyone 
Lets refresh our minds regarding the following two components of mindfulness:
being open to our thoughts and feelings
being non-judgmental about our thoughts and feelings
When we are present to our thoughts and feelings, we might not feel like we are practicing mindfulness because we arent freeing up space in our minds. However, the opposite is true. By being present to our thoughts and feelings, we are creating more space to process them without acting on them or trying to change them. Acting or trying to change thoughts and feelings requires more energy and can bog down our minds. So, how can we practice mindfulness by being present to our thoughts and feelings?
Acknowledge and remember that any thoughts and feelings are temporary guests with the ability to change or leave in the next moments.
Label feelings or emotions; for example, if a past or future thought begins to cause us anxiety, we might state, This feeling is anxiety.
Labeling feelings and emotions can help us process them faster and bring us back to the present because we experience emotions and feelings in the present, even though the scenario that prompts the emotions or feelings might live in the past or future. Labeling them also helps us not get caught up in the narrative that may be producing them.
Practice being non-judgmental of our thoughts and feelings.
This means that we dont need to label our thoughts and feelings as good or bad.
We dont try to change or act on our feelings or thoughts. We remember that we are not our thoughts; we may have angry thoughts, but we are not angry people. We experience all kinds of thoughts throughout our lives. We simply give them space to be and pass through, even if they keep coming back. We can give them room every time they surface in the landscape of our minds.
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@EmunahHere
I really like this post, because it reminds me of practises I still find hard. Not being judgemental of what I'm feeling of thinking is something I haven't quite managed yet. But I'm learning.
What I don't quite understand yet is the labeling though. Because if you label something, doesn't that mean that you are judging it?? Could you maybe explain this further?
Have a nice Sunday 
@JayTheBird14
Hey, Jay! Thank you for your post and question!
Labeling does not necessarily equal judging. I think some of the confusion is in the fact that "label" typically has a negative connotation, meaning sometimes, we use the word "label" to label people or something that we don't like.
In mindfulness, however, a label can help us identify what we are feeling so that we can process and be present to whatever we are feeling. Labeling isn't something that we have to do in the present moment; it just may help some people to be present to an emotion or feeling without getting caught in the narrative of the emotion or feeling.
For example, I can say, "I'm feeling anxious," rather than, "this happened to me today, and I can't believe it happened. What am I going to do? What are they going to do?" The second response is more concerned with future thinking (the narrative) while the first response puts focus on the emotion in the present moment. Being caught up in the narrative of an emotion or feeling takes us away from the present and places us in the future with "what if" thinking and our thinking tends to spiral into a giant snowball.
I hope this makes sense! If not, feel free to PM me!
@EmunahHere
This totally makes sense, I think you are right and that my misunderstanding came from the term 'labeling'. English isn't my native language and up until now I've only encountered the word when it had a negative meaning. So yeah, thank you for that vocabulary lesson 
And now that you explain it like this, I also see how the labeling is actually being non-judgemental. You just give the emotion/feeling a name, and file it away as such. You acknowledge that it happened to you, but nothing more. No worrying about the past or future about it.
Thank you for taking your time to explain this to me, I'm going to keep this in mind from now on
@EmunahHere
Emunah, you put it in a very good way. it is not good to label, judge or even block current emotions or thoughts, they come and they go. we can be aware of them but do not need to panic over them. what we do in mindfulness is very helpful and slowly it will become better and better to understand what is happening inside.
@EmunahHere thanks for these reminders to anchor us in this moment. When the outer activities fade away then what is left is this moment. Great message!