Nonjudgmental Mindfulness

 Mindfulness has to do with the quality of awareness or the quality of presence that a person brings to everyday living.  It is a way of living awake, with eyes wide open. As a set of skills mindfulness practice is the intentional process of observing, describing, and participating in reality nonjudgmentally, in the moment, and with effectiveness.

Dr. Marsha Linehan

The Neutral

This video is purposefully what the judging mind would refer to as "bland" and "boring".  It is a "neutral" scene that would often  pass by our awareness without notice. We can learn to focus on the neutral that which exists between our likes and dislikes, our judgments of pleasant and non pleasant, that which we may not even notice let alone judge, so we can build our nonjudging habits. From here we may experience a state of nonreactive acceptance  that we can take with us into the experiences we would normally react to. 

Worldly neutral feelings are conditioned by the blandness of the object; nothing stands out, and so they go unnoticed. Unworldly neutral feelings are born of equanimity, and they become very strong in the fourth absorption and in the insight stage called "equanimity about formations". At these times of great refinement of mind, the neutral feelings actually bring more pleasure than pleasant ones. Joseph Goldstein, page 93

Non -Judgmental Observation

In hope of helping a loved one I have been absorbing the work of Marsha Linehan since the type of treatment she offers cannot be found around here, ( at least not in the way she insists it be).  Of course, there is so little I can do as I am not professionally qualified...but...a large part of her treatment plan is centered around mindfulness. That part I can handle :) 

Nonjudgmentalness is describing reality as "what is" without adding evaluations of "good" and  "bad" or the like to it. 

Marsha Linehan

Joseph Goldstein (2016) Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening. Sounds True: Boulder, CO

Marsha E. Linehan (2015) DBT Skills Training Manual. Second Edition. New York: The Guilford Press.