Noticing debrief

Ross: [00:00:00] Hi there, and a very warm welcome to season six, episode 27 of People's Soup. It's Ross Macintosh here,

pea Soupers. This week it's another copper soup, a short episode, which is in essence a debrief on the last two episodes where I talked about the human superpower of noticing and shared in exercise to enhance our skill of noticing, called a mindful meditation of body and breath, I invited you to share your reflections after having a go at the exercise. so thanks to those who did share your reflections. I really appreciate your feedback. This episode is a combination of those reflections blended with typical reflections I receive when I share this exercise with adults in the workplace. for those of you who are new to People's Soup, welcome, it's great to have you here. We aim to provide you with the ingredients for a better work life, from behavioral science and beyond. For those of you who are regular, peace supers.[00:01:00]

Thanks for tuning in. Again, we love it that you're part of our community. The feedback and reflections fall into three main categories.

let me share those reflections and my responses. and you'll probably begin to notice a theme emerging. so those three categories were one, relaxed and sleepy, two mind wandering, and three sensations and emotions.

let's go to relaxed and sleepy first. Some of you reported feeling very relaxed and on the cusp of sleep. Almost nodding off. My response to that is I'll take that. it's great noticing, and I'll recommend that you keep practicing, and if you do, want you to know that it's likely you won't always feel relaxed and on the cusp of sleep, sometimes you might notice a pain or an ache in the body.

Perhaps an emotion surfacing like happiness, joy, [00:02:00] sadness, or despair. any of those aches, pains, or sensations are okay. I just want to manage your expectations. If you do notice a pain or an ache in the body or a particular emotion that's part of developing your noticing muscle. And speaking of muscle, let's move on to mind wandering. I. some of you reported lots of mind wandering during the exercise, adding that you're no good at this mindfulness stuff.

As your mind wandered nine times during the practice, firstly, notice the judgment there. That decision was made, that you are no good at this mindfulness stuff. And secondly. I'll respond by saying, great noticing rather than considering that you are no good at this mindfulness stuff. I'd say that's a tremendous practice.

What do I mean? Well, if you've noticed that your mind wandered nine times, that's some top class noticing. I liken it to lifting weights at the gym. [00:03:00] Now imagine you're doing what I believe is called a bicep curl. The more repetitions of that curl you do, the bigger your bicep gets.

That's exactly like the mind wandering. You notice your mind is wandered and then bring it back. You notice your mind is wandered. You bring it back. You notice your mind has wandered and you bring it back. You're developing that mental muscle.

And finally noticing sensations and emotions. Some people reported noticing sensations in the body like an ache or a tension. Others reported noticing a busyness of their mind, or a level of impatience with thoughts like, oh God, I wish it'd hurry up, and will this ever end?

Some people reported other emotions like happiness or sadness To all of these, I'd say perhaps you've already guessed great noticing. If you noticed an ache or tension in the body, a level of [00:04:00] impatience or an emotion. Again, that's helping you to cultivate this skill of noticing.

So you spotted the pattern of the reflections you shared and the responses I typically get from adults in the workplace. These are all examples of great noticing, and we don't always interpret them in that way. This noticing helps us cultivate the skill that I described as a human superpower.

one definition of mindfulness that I like is from the website of the American Psychological Association, and it goes like this. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present moment experiences without judging or reacting to them. One of the key parts of the practice is those last words without judging or reacting to them, So I recommend adopting an attitude of curiosity. Notice the tendency to get a bit judgy or reactive when we notice present moment [00:05:00] experiences. that's all part of the practice. I'd recommend a short daily exercise, and you can experiment with which time of day might work best for you. If you miss a day, know that you can recommit and reconnect with the practice. What you're doing is developing the human superpower of noticing, developing that mental muscle, gathering the scattered mind.

Waking up from autopilot. That's it folks. The debrief in the bag. If you'd like this episode of the podcast, please could I ask you to keep sharing rating, reviewing and subscribing. It all helps people discover the special people soup ingredients. thanks to Andy Glenn for his spoon magic and Alex Engelberg for his vocals.

But most of all, dear listener, thanks to you, look after yourselves. Peace supers and bye for now.

What do I mean? Well, if you've noticed that your mind wandered nine [00:06:00] times, that's some top class noticing. I liken it to lifting weights at the gym.