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    Changing Your History Channel

    SF
    Sean FargoPublished November 18, 2015 · Updated March 28, 2024 · 1 min read

    Printable Worksheet

    Changing Your History Channel

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    A mindful companion to this worksheet

    Working skillfully with thought

    Thoughts arise on their own, but the ones we believe become the architecture of our lives. “Changing Your History Channel” is a chance to notice which stories you have been carrying — and to question whether they still serve you.

    How mindfulness can help

    Mindfulness reveals thoughts as events in awareness, rather than facts about reality. By stepping back to observe a thought without immediately believing it, we recover a quiet authority over our inner life. We choose which voices to listen to, and which to thank and release.

    Gentle steps to try

    1. Catch the thought. When a familiar story appears, silently note, “Thinking,” and watch it the way you might watch a cloud.
    2. Investigate it. Ask: is this absolutely true? What do I know directly, without the commentary?
    3. Soften the grip. Try saying, “A thought is arising that says…” instead of “I think…”. Notice the spaciousness this creates.
    4. Choose where to invest attention. You cannot control what arises, but you can choose what you nourish with your continued attention.

    You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness in which they appear, stay a while, and dissolve. Trust that quieter knowing.

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    This mindfulness exercise on Changing Your History Channel will help you explore new ways of dealing with an old (and perhaps painful) personal story.

    Certainly, we can’t change the past. No matter how much we yearn or pray or plead, the unfortunate events of our history are there to stay. Instead of stressing over things we can’t control, we can focus on what we have power over. With this worksheet, we will guide you through the process of managing the effects of the past on present. We will try to change our history channel; to view the past from a different lens. Hopefully, with this, the same event of the past will have a different effect on your present self.

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