Take Control of Your Mind (Part II)

Goal

To take control of your attention and thoughts.

HOW Skills (Fulton State Hospital, p. 16)

These “HOW” skills will teach you how to live in your wise mind:

Non-Judgmental Stance

• SEE, BUT DON’T EVALUATE. Take a non-judgmental stance and focus on the facts.
• UNGLUE YOUR OPINIONS from the facts.
• ACCEPT each moment, each event as a blanket spread out on the lawn accepts both the rain and the sun, each leaf that falls upon it.
• ACKNOWLEDGE both the helpful and harmful but don’t judge.
• When you find yourself judging, DON’T JUDGE YOUR JUDGING.

Be in the Moment

• DO ONE THING AT A TIME. When you are eating, eat. When you are walking, walk. When you are working, work. When you are in a conversation, focus on being present with the other person.
• If other actions, thoughts, or feelings distract you, LET GO OF DISTRACTIONS and go back to what you were doing.
• CONCENTRATE YOUR MIND. If you find you are doing two things at once, stop and go back to one thing at a time.

Pay Attention

• FOCUS ON WHAT WORKS. Do what needs to be done in each situation in order to meet your larger goals. Stay away from thoughts of right/wrong, should/should not, fair/unfair.
• PLAY BY THE RULES. Act as skillfully as you can, meeting the needs of the situation you are in, not the situation you WISH you were in.
• LET GO of vengeance, useless anger, and righteousness that hurts you and doesn’t work.

Capture Your Thoughts Exercise (Fulton State Hospital, p. 17)

Instructions: Right after you experience a difficult situation involving another person, reflect on these questions in order to observe and describe your thoughts:

• What happened?
• How did you feel? How strong were your feelings?
• What thoughts went through your mind? Can you identify any MUSTS, SHOULDS about yourself, or SHOULDS about others /the situation?
  • Pick one of these thoughts and change it into a non-judgmental thought.