Non-Judgmental Observation

topic

Non-judgmental observation — the mindfulness attitude of observing experience (thoughts, emotions, sensations, behaviors) without the immediate evaluative categorization of good-bad, right-wrong, wanted-unwanted that most experience receives — creates the psychological space between stimulus and response that allows deliberate choice rather than automatic reaction, and allows the full arrival of experience (including difficult experience) without the secondary layer of self-criticism and resistance that most people add automatically to any experience that deviates from their preferences.

Role

Non-judgmental observation is the mindfulness quality that most directly reduces the psychological suffering that is not produced by life circumstances but by the relationship with those circumstances — specifically, the layer of self-criticism, evaluation, and resistance that most people add to their experience automatically and without awareness. The experience of physical pain, for example, is substantially amplified by the judgment 'this shouldn't be happening,' 'I can't bear this,' 'this will always be this way' — all of which are not inherent in the pain but are added to it by evaluative thinking — and mindfulness research on pain consistently shows that non-judgmental observation of pain reduces its perceived intensity and its emotional impact without reducing the underlying physical sensation.

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