I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of fighting all those things from the past that are holding me back. Those old mindsets, emotions, and triggers that pop into your head at the most inopportune time. As a result, it totally hijacks your level of productivity. How do you get into a non-judgment state-of-mind to release all of these emotions?!?
The theme of this week, in its entirety, is inviting in acceptance, compassion, forgiveness, and non-judgment in order to move on from the things (and feelings) that we’ve been struggling with for way too long. Non-judgment can be hard to do, but it will come eventually if you practice these tips.
Also, the podcast episode this week, Embracing Non-Judgment: The Path To Inner Peace, really helps to center your thoughts and understand that grief is an emotion that often shines through when you’re in the process of letting go of something. Grief brings on a whole new bucket of emotions that we have to deal with!
It’s ok to take the time to grieve the old version of you, even if you don’t want to represent that person anymore. It was a part of you for so long, and those people who were there during that time period were a part of you too. Letting go is hard to do, but necessary sometimes, and it’s ok to feel sad about it. Grief is a natural human emotion that we are allowed to feel whenever it appears in our lives.
3 Concepts of Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation is a practice that involves focusing your awareness on the present moment. It’s a way to train the mind to be more focused and calm, which can help reduce stress, improve mental well-being, and increase feelings of happiness and inner peace. There are seven attitudes of mindfulness that are crucial to cultivate in order to achieve these benefits. In this post, we will specifically focus on how non-judgment, acceptance, and loving-kindness can help you let go of past relationships or bad memories.
- Non-Judgment: This means observing your thoughts, feelings, and experiences without automatically labeling them as good or bad. Instead of judging your experiences, simply acknowledge them and allow them to pass. This can be helpful in letting go of past relationships or bad memories because it helps to neutralize negative feelings and thoughts, reducing their power over you.
- Acceptance: This means embracing your experiences and accepting them as they are, without trying to change or control them. By accepting your experiences, you can begin to let go of the past and move forward. Accepting your experiences also helps to reduce feelings of anxiety and guilt, making it easier to release negative memories.
- Loving-Kindness: This is a practice of extending kindness, compassion, and understanding to yourself and others. By extending loving-kindness to yourself, you can increase feelings of self-worth and self-compassion, which can help you let go of negative memories. Extending loving-kindness to others can help reduce feelings of anger, resentment, and bitterness, making it easier to release negative feelings associated with past relationships.
By incorporating these three attitudes into your mindfulness practice, you can begin to let go of past relationships and negative triggers or memories associated with them. It’s important to remember, though, that intentional letting go or acceptance is different from purposeful avoidance.
Avoidance means you’re not willing to work through those feelings and emotions and you just pretend they don’t exist. That’s not helpful. Intentional acceptance means that you’ve evaluated your emotions and your triggers. Then you made the decision that this thing (or person) is no longer serving you. Those old feelings no longer need to be a part of your life. Sometimes it’s hard to decipher if you’re avoiding or letting go, but time, and being present and aware, will help you understand this.
Mindfulness meditation is a powerful tool for developing self-awareness and increasing inner peace, and these three attitudes are essential components of a successful practice. By taking the time to cultivate non-judgment, acceptance, and loving-kindness, you can begin to experience greater happiness, well-being, and peace of mind.
So next time you find yourself getting frustrated with a situation, I challenge you to pause. Pause and re-evaluate the situation and determine if you’re actually judging a situation, or if you have in fact moved on, and what you’re experiencing is actually a form of grief. Grief that you’re trying to let go of in thinking about past experiences.
Here’s an excerpt from the podcast this week to connect this concept:
My best friend and I were talking about this concept a while ago. She’s actually the one who encouraged me to talk about this on the podcast! Because we had both just gotten done hanging out with different groups of people and we were catching up on it. We were both realizing that we had similar feelings of it being unsettling and exhausted because the other people just drained the energy from us. Like, we’re thinking, I’m supposed to be more open-minded right now, so why am I more frustrated with this person than I used to be? It doesn’t make sense! And so we got to talking about all of this stuff and breaking it all down. m
And so, I’m reminded by a quote I saw on Instagram earlier this week by Dr. Caroline Leaf. I seriously just love how posts show up in my feed exactly when I need to see them. She posted:
It’s ok to feel sad when spending time with people you used to relate with at one time in your life, and realizing you don’t relate the same anymore, and not knowing who you relate to anymore. Allow yourself space to grieve. You will find it once again.” – Dr. Caroline Leaf
And so, this unsettling feeling during your mindset transformation is not judgement or harsh feelings. It’s a sense of grief. It’s your mind, and your body, going through the process of letting go and moving on. Which makes sense that it would leave us a little bit confused.
Alright. Take this quote and let it sit with you for a while. It may take some time to sink in and apply to your own life.
If you want to explore this topic further, I encourage you to join the Mindfulness Success Studio, or reach out to me to chat about my private 1-hour Mindset Restoration Sessions! They are key factors in creating a mindset that will stick with you in the long run.
