Search Inside Yourself
Chapter Four - All Natural, Organic Self-Confidence
Chapter Four of 'Search Inside yourself' by Chade-Meng Tan writes about emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. All three disciplines require you to pay close attention to your emotional state and in particular, reflect on oneself during and after experienceing high levels of emotions.
One additional technique I have practiced this week is called 'Body Scan'. This is very similar to mindfulness mediation but instead of just focusing on breathing, you slowly move your attention around different areas of your body, and try to detect different sensations and emotions. I found body scan to be relaxing and easier to maintain concentration than when just focusing on breathing alone.
Meng leaves us with a quick lesson on "your emotions are not you"; emotions are something we experience rather that something we become. Once we learn to recognise our emotions rising, we can then make a conscious decision weather or not we want to experience them, and to what degree. This makes clear sense to me as I am not someone who gets worked up easily, but I will be making a bigger effort over the next few weeks to recognise my emotions more and more.
Cheers,
