Instructions

Write in your journal the answers to the questions on back that are underlined. Answer all other relevant questions in your head and body, but feel free to write down any answers to questions that you find insightful, important, helpful, or useful.

Have your answers be honest, sincere, and authentic. When applicable, try to feel the answers in your body, especially when asked how something makes you feel.

If any insights arise for you while doing an investigation, be sure to write down the experience and what it taught you in your journal.

As a reminder, an insight is an “A-ha!,” light-bulb, or heart-opening event where we directly experience something so clearly that the truth of it becomes self-evident.

Use questions that work for you

The questions provided will give you a feel for how investigating judgment works, and the types of questions to ask. Typically, investigation questions help you see the truth of liberating wisdoms.

The liberating wisdom for self-judgment is that “all life, including yourself, is inherently valuable and worthy.” This wisdom is expressed in a variety of ways:

The Higher Power of your understanding loves all life, including you, unconditionally.
We are all one. All life is interconnected.
If a thought is not kind, it’s not true.

Pick a way of saying it that most resonates with your heart.

If you think of other questions that help you see this liberating wisdom, then use them as well.

Generating Self-Judgmental Thoughts

If you have a hard time coming up with self-judgmental thoughts, here are some ideas on how to generate them.

1. Whenever you think a self-judgmental thought, write it down, or record it on your phone right away so you can transfer it into your journal to use for this exercise later.

2. Gently try to remember some common and persistent self-judgmental thoughts that arise in your mind.

3. For this next exercise, do not remember traumatizing experiences, but only those that you can remember while maintaining your composure. Think of a situation that didn’t go your way, where you were disappointed with yourself and your performance. Mindfully and compassionately remember this experience and notice what the voice in your head says, or try to remember what the voice said around the time of the experience. Write down any self-judgmental thoughts that arise. Do this as often as you need to, to get enough self-judgmental thoughts to work with.

Liberally do mindful pauses

Before you begin, do a mindful pause. As you answer these questions, do a mindful pause whenever you feel stuck, confused, unclear, or would just like to.

Inquiry questions to see the unkind, unhelpful, and untrue nature of all self-judgments.

Write down a self-judgmental thought that arises in your mind.
What feelings arise when I believe this thought?
What is the feeling tone of those feelings (you can answer pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, which means neither pleasant nor unpleasant)
Are these feeling tones worldly (sense-based) or relational (not sense-based)?
What behavior impulses or behaviors arise when I believe this thought and feel its associated feelings?
Are these behaviors skillful (benefit self and others) or unskillful (harms self and others)?
How is this thought unkind?
How is this thought unhelpful?
How is this thought untrue? Provide three or more examples or reasons and write them down.

Use these inquiry questions when working with self-judgments that on the surface appear to be objective facts. (For example: I am gay. I am disabled. I am fat. Etc.)
Is it “wrong” or “bad” to be this (gay, disabled, fat, etc.)? Who says? And who disagrees with that?
For others who are this, are their needs less worthy than those who are not this? Why? (If you answer “yes” to the first question, expect the answer to the second question to be additional judgments that need investigating. Be thankful for helping make this all conscious.)
Does being this make my needs less important than the needs of others? Why? (The note in question 11 applies here too.)
Is this the only aspect of my life that matters and is important?
What other aspects of me are important to acknowledge and appreciate?
How does defining myself solely by this aspect limit me and my potential?
What can I appreciate about this aspect of myself? How has it helped my emotional and inner growth? What wonderful qualities has it helped me cultivate?
What would I feel and how might my life look if I accepted and appreciated this aspect of myself?
Can I accept and appreciate this aspect of myself?

* If you answered questions 10-18, you may want to now update your answers to questions 7, 8, and 9.

Seeing the impermanent nature of thoughts and the benefits of allowing

19. Is this thought permanent or temporary?

20. Does hating, fearing, or trying to repress this thought help return the mind and body to peace?

21. If you allow the thought to be, will it go away on its own?

Seeing the impersonal and conditioned nature of thoughts

22. Where have I heard this thought or thoughts like it before? (Parents, teachers, peers, media, etc.)

23. Did I consciously choose to think this thought, or did it arise spontaneously due to a variety of causes and conditions beyond my control (like brain biology and past events)?

24. Is this thought personal (consciously chosen) or impersonal (arising due to various causes and conditions)?

25. Is this thought conditioned (arising due to the natural laws of brain biology and past conditioning) or unconditioned (inspired by the Higher Power of your understanding)?

26. Is this thought “the truth” of reality as we know it; or is it merely an immaterial, impersonal, and temporary thought?

A loving response – vital to do for every investigation

27. How would I feel if I could never believe this self-judgment again?

28. Write a loving response to this self-judgment that is honest, kind, useful, and helpful. (If there is any wisdom in the judgment, acknowledge it here. For example, if the judgment attacked you for procrastinating you might say: “I agree it would be helpful if I started my projects earlier, and I intend to do that. However, if I fail in this intention, I am still inherently valuable, and I ask my mind to speak to me with love and respect, not judgment and hatred.”)

29. When I operate from this loving response, how do I feel?

30. When I operate from this loving response how does this affect my behavior and ways of showing up in life?

My loving intentions moving forward

31. The next time this thought arises, will I intend to relate to it with aversion or with allowance?

32. The next time this thought arises, will I believe it?

33. The next time this thought arises, what will I intend to do? (Suggested answer: Allow it to arise, not believe it, take a mindful pause, and remember my loving response.)

Track and celebrate!

Once you have answered all of the questions for a self-judgment, mark that you have done one investigation on your tracking log, then celebrate!

Regularly review your answers

Once a week or so, review your journal answers to these questions to keep your loving responses and any insights you’ve had fresh in mind. As they become your new way of relating to yourself, you will no longer need to review them anymore.

Additional Resources

If you are not already, consider taking our Mindfulness Fundamentals 3.0 course which helps you develop a daily meditation and mindfulness practice.
Read Experiencing Disidentification with False Thoughts to learn what it feels like to disidentify from false thoughts.
Read Testing the Effectiveness of Our Investigation to learn how well your investigation deactivated your identification with a false thought.
Read Investigate Thoughts to be see clearly what a thought is, and learn how to relate to them more skillfully.
Read Disidentifying from Form for additional helpful information on how and why mindfulness helps us disidentify from our thoughts, and eventually, all forms.

Banner photo credit: Alex He @alex_he