Advanced Mindfulness Skills 95As with the last exercise, make photocopies of the Beginner’s Mind Record if you need to, and
keep one folded in your pocket so that you can record your judgments as soon as you recognize
that you’re making them. The more quickly you record them after they occur, the sooner radical
acceptance will become a regular part of your life. Use the example of the Beginner’s Mind Record
on the following page to help you. The blank Beginner’s Mind Record for your use is on the page
after that.
(NOTE: When you have completed a Beginner’s Mind Record, keep it to use in the Judgment
Defusion exercise later in this chapter.)
Ju DGMENTS AND LABELS
Hopefully, after the last exercise, it’s easy to see how putting labels on people, thoughts, and
objects—making them either good or bad—can later lead to disappointment. In order to move
closer to using radical acceptance, the next exercise will continue to help you monitor the judg-
ments that you make and then it will help you let go of those judgments.
So far in this chapter, you’ve already recognized many of the problems associated with making
judgments:
Judgments can trigger overwhelming emotions. Judgments can often lead to disappointment and suffering. Judgments prevent you from being truly mindful in the present moment.Obviously, one of the problems with judgments and criticisms is that they occupy your
thoughts. In many cases, it can become very easy to start obsessing on a single judgment. Perhaps
you’ve even had the experience of a single judgment occupying your thoughts all day. Maybe it was
something bad about yourself or someone else. Or maybe it was something good about yourself or
someone else. We’ve all had this experience. So when your thoughts are occupied by something
that happened in the past or by something that might happen in the future, how mindful are you
being about the present moment? Probably you’re not being very mindful. And when those obses-
sive thoughts are judgments about yourself or someone else, how easy is it for your emotions to get
triggered? Probably it’s very easy, especially if you struggle with overwhelming emotions.