Hello, it's Dora here. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Thursday.

Today we are continuing to decode meditation speak. In the past couple days we've talked

about allowing resistance and for this episode we will deconstruct what noticing means.

The etymology for this word stems from the Latin word no-tuce. To know, to be known, to

become familiar with, information, knowledge, intelligence, and for meditation purposes

to treat with attention. I remember the very first time I meditated

in my life and was invited to notice what was going on in my mind and body. And it felt

as if I had opened the floodgates of my life. All these different thoughts and feelings

came crashing down at once. It was overwhelming to say the least, because my natural impulse

was to try and do something with these thoughts or make something happen. And when I look

back at that moment now, all those things were simply waiting to be acknowledged. And

that is what noticing is. To become aware of what is here in this moment without judgment.

To recognize where our attention is and most importantly, understand our relationship to

what is happening. It's a noticing that we can move from a place of doing to a state of

being. Most times we're caught up in the past or thinking about the future. When we notice,

we're observing, not being absorbed by what is arising.

In the app, there's an animation called changing perspective. It shows what happens when we take

a step back from being caught up in the so-called traffic of the mind and instead sit on the side

of the road, observing the thoughts as they pass by like cars. We're aware that some thoughts are

faster, some are slower. They may be shiny and entertaining. Others we may be indifferent to.

But we can treat them like cars, nothing more and nothing less and allowing them to come and go.

Why do we do this and why is it important to notice our thoughts in the first place?

...