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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

    PDF·192 KB

    A mindful companion to this worksheet

    Working with thoughts

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

    How mindfulness can help

    Mindfulness shows thoughts as events in awareness rather than facts about the world. When we can step back and watch a thought without immediately believing it, we get a little quiet authority over our inner life. We choose which voices to follow, and which to thank and let go.

    Gentle steps to try

    1. Catch the thought. When a familiar story shows up, you might quietly note “thinking” and watch it the way you would watch a cloud.
    2. Look into it. Ask: is this definitely true? What do I know directly, without the commentary?
    3. Loosen the grip. Try saying “a thought is here that says…” instead of “I think…” and notice the space that opens.
    4. Choose what to feed. You cannot control what arises, but you can choose what you keep giving your attention to.

    You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness they appear in, stay a while, and pass through. You can trust that quieter knowing.

    Download PDF

    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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