The Judgement Trap

The Judgement Trap

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Most of us have been there.

Someone cuts you off in a queue, you get coffee spilled on your shirt and are late for awork, the kids are playing up,

or someone at work takes your favorite cup without telling you.

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And if you were human, the usual thing to do would be to

STRESS OUT!

GET MAD!!

Or start labeling the ‘CULPRIT(S)’

of your misfortune or annoyance.

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What we don’t realize half the time is that stress comes from the rules we make about how we or other people “should” behave.

We judge those who go against our ideals and when we think we haven’t done something the “right way”. Or we judge ourselves for making the wrong choice.

This is the Judgment Trap

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The truth is that we have no control over what happens outside of us.

The good news is that we DO have control over the way we think or choose to respond/react.

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Think about it for a moment.

When was the last time you reprimanded someone over something that later turned out to be not such a big deal (even if you did it in your thoughts only)

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Or maybe someone cut you off at the lights and you started to call them names (perhaps with the window up for safety).

Did you really feel any better for doing so? Chances are you probably felt worse and the day kind of spiraled downwards from that point.

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You may even have shared a bit of laugh with a friend over the incident, and that was it, it didn’t destroy the rest of

your day.

If this later scenario is foreign to you, or it has been a long time since you responded like that, then I challenge you to

give it a go next time an “annoying” situation arises.http://www.meditationtoday.com.au

In our Meditation Workshops, we talk about stress, and how by adopting the attitude of “it’s not good, it’s not bad,

it just is” really helps to cultivate acceptance and helps people to be a little easier on themselves when starting out

with meditation for the first time.

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So when a client tells me about their challenge with a certain type of meditation and

they ask if they are doing it right, my response is:

“It’s not right, it’s not wrong,

it just is, and you may simply want to find another position or just sit with the discomfort until it fades away”

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You may want try and go for 30 days without making any judgments and journal your experience.

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Go ahead and see if you are able to last the whole 30 days but just remember if you catch yourself judging not to be too hard on yourself – just have a little laugh about it.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of really cool tips for managing everyday stress:

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1. Eat a small square (yes, a SMALL square) of dark chocolate each day and really savors the taste and texture of the chocolate in your mouth before swallowing the chocolate.

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2. Close your eyes (as long as you are not driving or walking on the street) and count backward from 59 down to 0.

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We hope you enjoy today’s tips and for more ways to manage stress, stay tuned!

Namaste!

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