Non-Judgement

9 attitudes of mindfulness

“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.” ― Jiddu Krishnamurti

Non-judging 

We are constantly generating judgments about our experience. Everything we see is labeled and categorised. Become aware of this constant stream of judging and step back from it, then you can see through your prejudices and fears to find alternative solutions. When you find your mind judging, you don’t have to stop it. All that is required is to be aware of it happening. Judging the judging only makes matters even more complicated.

  • Taking the attitude of an impartial witness/observer to your own experience, thoughts and sensations.
  • Noticing the tendency to automatically judge our experience .. good / bad / neutral.
  • Being aware of the judgement without judging the judgement or immediately reacting to it.

 

When we first learn to meditate we often have an idea of how it should be and how it should feel. If our experience doesn’t match up to this idea then we may judge ourselves or we may judge the practice of meditation itself. People often say to me ‘I can’t meditate.’ What they actually mean is that they get distracted or that they don’t feel relaxed. There is no right or wrong way to feel during meditation. If we can suspend judgement, or at least loosen it, we can allow our meditation to simply unfold.

 

We judge all the time. Often we make decisions based on judgements that we didn’t even realise that we had made. And often those judgements are completely wrong. Several years ago, when myself and fellow Mindful Therapies practitioner, Mark, first met, he came along to one of my 8-week courses. During many of the sessions he was quiet and I struggled to read his facial expressions. I made a judgement that he wasn’t enjoying the course and judged myself as having not delivered it well enough. It wasn’t until after the course ended that I realised that he had not only enjoyed the course but wanted to take things further – and we became colleagues. My judgement was completely off!
I am not suggesting that we try to stop judging altogether. This is impossible and probably not even desirable. However, maybe we could hold our judgements a little more loosely.

The attitude of non-judging – Jon Kabat-Zinn