"Before you quit, try. Before you talk, listen. Before you react, think. Before you criticize, wait. Before you move on, forgive." ~ Author Unknown

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NEUTRAL THINKING 

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"Before you quit, try. Before you talk, listen. Before you react, think. Before you criticize, wait. Before you move on, forgive."

~ Author Unknown

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Neutral thinking is the ability to look at a thought or situation and observe it without judgement. This concept comes up quite often if you’ve done any type of meditation or mindfulness practice. It is the idea that you can learn to observe thoughts, emotions, people, and situations, and stay in the realm of factual observation rather than getting sucked into a story. We’ve all been there: something or someone triggers a feeling and we immediately begin to place labels on what’s happening, why it might be happening, what might happen next, and what the whole situation says about us. This constant state of story creation can block us from being fully present and from being the observers in our own lives. Not to mention, it’s exhausting.

One of the techniques you can practice to build neutral brain muscles is the mental noting technique.

Mental noting is when you assign a word or short phrase to a feeling or thought and don’t let that feeling or thought suck you into a story about who you are. It goes something like this… Let’s say you are experiencing a situation that’s causing a lot of anxiety. In this situation, you aren’t going to meet a personal goal, even though you’ve been working hard to do so. A negative approach would be to label yourself with character flaws and berate yourself. A positive approach might be to take a step back, reflect on what happened and choose to learn from the experience. Someone with the power of neutral thinking would have very neutral self-talk in response to the feelings and thoughts coming up for them. They take responsibility, but they respond to self-imposed labels by saying things like “I’m noticing I’m labeling myself as “X” in this situation.” Through a neutral approach, you’re mindful of your body’s reaction, stick to the facts, and don’t get wrapped up in the story.

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