Unpack Your Mind
Recalling what you were just thinking prepares you to recognize the perceptual components of thoughts and feelings as they arise.
This is the final installment of a four-part series on awareness of thoughts and feelings.
Combining all three of these challenges into a single exercise
Even though we spend so much of our lives inside our heads, it’s surprisingly difficult to notice what’s actually happening there while it’s happening. We remember the narrative content—the gist of whatever story we’re constructing from our memories and predictions—but we have difficulty describing the building blocks—mental images, verbal thoughts, and emotional body sensations—that make up those thoughts and feelings.
It’s difficult to track the visual, auditory, and emotional components as they unfold, but it’s not impossible. This challenge is similar to remembering dreams: while dreaming, details are vivid, but as soon as we try to recall them, they evaporate. Improving dream recall by quickly jotting down details can sharpen accessibility over time—the same holds true for noticing our waking thoughts.
If you’ve ever tried to improve your dream recall, you probably noticed how details that are initially unavailable can quickly begin to emerge after you start writing down even the faintest details as soon as you wake up. After a few days, scenes, sounds, fragments of dialogue, and even feelings start to become clearer and more accessible, regardless of whether they make logical sense.
When I start writing down my dreams, sometimes the only clue I have is a vague emotion I can’t put into words. When I stick with it, it eventually seems like mentally conjuring a movie from the perspective of a character living in the scenes. Many people notice that at first, the only clue is a vague emotion or image, but with patience, more details emerge. You may find this, too, whether trying to remember your dreams or get better at objectively observing your thoughts and feelings.
Being able to observe yourself thinking and feeling when you’re awake involves a similar process. Using mindful awareness strategies can help. Verbal thoughts often come into focus first, but with steady attention, images and emotional feelings become easier to detect. The more we practice observing mental images, verbal thoughts, or emotional body sensations, the more clearly we can perceive them.
Learning to observe these fleeting details isn’t just a curiosity—it can help you become less entangled in your thoughts and more able to respond with clarity and composure. This ability contributes to all the areas of life that matter most, including our relationships, responsibilities, and the quality of our contribution to the world.
When we talk about our thoughts and feelings, we typically focus on what they mean:
I’m worried about a medical symptom.
My co-worker hurt my feelings.
I need to call my mom, but I don’t want to.
When we try to observe our thoughts and feelings mindfully, the focus is on the sensory details:
I heard myself narrating a story about cancer and chemotherapy.
I saw my co-worker’s face in my mind.
I heard myself mentally saying, “I should call my mom.” I pictured her looking at her phone and calendar, being disappointed, and I felt mild emotional discomfort in my stomach and on my face.
We start by noticing specifics and build more distance from the content while focusing on the sensory category as if the meaning were irrelevant:
hearing thoughts
seeing thoughts
feeling emotions
We get better by exploring these sensory categories separately and together.
Today’s exercise brings together the three previous attention exercises for observing visual thoughts, verbal thoughts, and bodily emotions. It’s an invitation to cultivate greater awareness of the full landscape of your inner experience, not by forcing clarity, but by gently tuning in and making note of whatever arises.
Over time, you may find that what once seemed blurry or inaccessible becomes surprisingly vivid, offering new insights into how your mind works.
Exercise
This exercise aims to enhance your ability to observe your subjective experiences without getting too caught up in the meanings of your thoughts and feelings.
Although it may seem intimidating at first, it can be liberating with practice. Keep things playful, set aside any expectations, and let curiosity guide your exploration. Remember, attention exercises are more effective when approached as games rather than tests.
Circumstances for learning this attention exercise
Going to bed
Feeling alert in the middle of the night
Waking up in the morning
