What is mental noting?
Mental noting (also called, labelling or naming) can be incorporated into our formal and informal mindfulness practice as a tool to keep awareness on track. It’s a gentle acknowledgement of our moment-to-moment experience, helping us to stay present and tease out aspects of our inner experience, whether body sensations, thoughts, or emotions. When noting, we use one word to name what’s happening; for example, we might say: “This is anger,” “Anxiety is arising,” or "Frustration or restlessness is present.” Doing this is an opportunity to acknowledge and witness to what we are experiencing and can help us to disentangle or unstick from challenging emotions, thoughts, moods or mind states. When we do this, we usually feel some space or emotional freedom. The mental note can be general,...