02. Noting Heals Me, Part 2 of 3 — Steps 5–8

NOTING HEALS ME — A PURE MIND TEACHING

Part 2 of 3 — Steps 5–8

5. The Four Domains of Noting

To make the practice simple and grounded, it helps to understand that human experience arises in four main areas. Noting becomes clearer and more spacious when you recognize these domains. You are not trying to limit your experience—you are simply giving it room to be understood.

These four domains help organize what you feel, see, and sense within:

A. Sensations (the Body)

This is the physical side of your experience. Sensations are the body’s language.
They include:

  • warmth

  • coolness

  • tightness

  • heaviness

  • lightness

  • pulsing

  • pressure

  • contraction

  • openness

  • trembling

  • stillness

When you notice a sensation and softly say, “Tightness,” or “Warmth,” or “Pressure in chest,” you are letting the body speak for itself. You are not interpreting it. You are not analyzing it. You are simply noticing.

The body softens when it is met with awareness, especially when awareness is gentle.

B. Emotions (the Heart)

Emotions are the felt waves that move through you. They rise, crest, and fall.
They include:

  • fear

  • sadness

  • grief

  • anger

  • hurt

  • shame

  • tenderness

  • compassion

  • longing

  • joy

When you softly note, “Fear,” or “Sadness,” or “Grief,” you are acknowledging the truth of your inner world. Emotions become more workable when they are named without judgment.

You are saying to the heart:
“I see you. You belong. I am here with you.”

C. Thoughts (the Mind)

Thoughts are the images, words, memories, and beliefs that pass through the mind.
They include:

  • thinking about the past

  • imagining the future

  • planning

  • judging

  • storytelling

  • replaying

  • worrying

  • remembering

  • comparing

When you note your thoughts, you create distance from them. Instead of being pulled into the story, you recognize, “Thinking… remembering… worrying…”

This simple recognition shifts you from being inside the thought to seeing the thought.
This is one of the great freedoms of noting.

D. Energies (the Nervous System)

This domain is subtle but extremely important. Energies refer to:

  • activation (fight-flight)

  • collapse or freeze

  • numbness

  • buzzing or agitation

  • openness or settling

  • grounding

  • the sense of expanding or contracting

These states often appear before an emotion forms. They are the nervous system’s way of responding to life.

When you gently note, “Activation,” or “Freeze,” or “Softening,” you are acknowledging your internal state without fear. This is especially healing for early emotional wounds.

Each of the four domains is welcomed.
Each is allowed.
Each contributes to your healing.

And when you note across these domains, your experience begins to organize itself into something understandable, workable, and compassionate.

6. How to Do the Practice: The Six Steps of Gentle Noticing

Noting is most helpful when done in a simple sequence. The sequence is not rigid—it is a guiding rhythm, like a soft pattern that helps the body and mind stay grounded and open.

Here are the six essential steps of the practice:

Step 1 — Settle the Body

Feel your feet.
Feel your hands.
Feel your breath moving naturally.

This step tells your system, “We are here. We are safe enough to notice.”
Nothing needs to be forced.
Just let your body arrive.

Step 2 — Open to What Arises

Do not search for anything.
Do not try to create an experience.
Simply allow whatever is here to be known.

This may include sensations, emotions, thoughts, and energies.
Let experience come to you gently.

Step 3 — Gently Name What You Notice

Use simple, short labels:

  • “Warmth.”

  • “Fear.”

  • “Thinking.”

  • “Tightness.”

  • “Sadness.”

  • “Numbness.”

  • “Softening.”

  • “Remembering.”

Let the label be soft and natural, like a friend whispering.

The job of noting is not to change the experience.
It is simply to recognize it.

Step 4 — Stay With It for a Few Breaths

When something arises, stay with it just long enough to acknowledge it.
Two or three breaths.
Sometimes five.

Long enough to meet it with care.
Not long enough to be overwhelmed.

You are training your system that your experience is safe to feel in gentle doses.

Step 5 — Return to Your Anchor

After staying with an experience, return to your anchor:

  • feet

  • hands

  • breath

  • heart area

  • whole body

This anchors the system.
It lets the moment settle.
It prevents spiraling, collapsing, or drifting away.

The anchor is the home you return to again and again.

Step 6 — Continue with Tender Curiosity

Repeat the cycle:

Notice → Name → Stay → Anchor

Each cycle builds emotional resilience.
Each cycle deepens your capacity to be present.
Each cycle teaches your nervous system that life can be felt, moment by moment, with kindness.

These six steps form the heart of your “Noting Heals Me” practice.
They are simple.
They are trustworthy.
They are enough.

7. Why Noting Works (Healing Mechanisms)

One of the beautiful things about noting is that it works on multiple levels of the human system at the same time. Emotional, physical, cognitive, and spiritual healing all open through the same doorway: gentle recognition.

Here is how noting supports your whole being:

A. It Calms the Nervous System

When you name an experience, the brain shifts out of survival mode.
The prefrontal cortex comes online.
The amygdala softens.
Your internal world becomes more manageable.

This is why trauma survivors often find relief in noting—because naming creates stability.

B. It Creates Space Around Pain

Pain becomes overwhelming when there is no space around it.
When you note your pain—physical or emotional—you place it inside a larger awareness.

You are saying:
“I see this pain, and I am here with it.”

Pain responds to this presence with softening.

C. It Builds Emotional Maturity

Emotions become safe to feel when they are named without judgment.
You learn how to allow feelings instead of suppressing them.

Each time you note an emotion, you are strengthening your capacity to be present with your life.

D. It Supports Trauma Integration

Trauma lives in the body and nervous system.
Noting allows traumatic impressions to rise in tiny, manageable pieces.

These small pieces can finally be acknowledged, felt, and released.

Healing does not demand large catharsis.
It grows from small, gentle meetings.

E. It Strengthens the Inner Witness

The more you note, the more you discover a deeper part of yourself:

The one who sees.
The one who knows.
The one who can hold the moment with love.

This is the Pure Mind.
This is the inner refuge.
This is the place where healing becomes natural and inevitable.

8. How to Apply This in Daily Life

Noting is not only a meditation practice.
It is a way of living.
A way of meeting your moment-to-moment experience with clarity and love.

Here are everyday places where noting becomes a true companion:

Morning

Upon waking, gently observe:

  • “Sleepiness.”

  • “Heaviness.”

  • “Hope.”

  • “Anxiety.”

  • “Tenderness.”

Beginning the day with honesty creates steadiness.

During Stress

When activation or overwhelm rises:

  • “Fear.”

  • “Protective energy.”

  • “Tension.”

  • “Freeze.”

Naming the experience reduces the charge.

In Relationships

Before reacting, note your own experience:

  • “Tight chest.”

  • “Sadness here.”

  • “Protective part rising.”

This creates space for compassion rather than reactivity.

Physical Pain

Note the pain as sensation:

  • “Throbbing.”

  • “Pressure.”

  • “Sharpness.”

  • “Softening.”

Noting pain reduces resistance, which reduces suffering.

Before Sleep

Let the day reveal itself:

  • “Fatigue.”

  • “Regret.”

  • “Gratitude.”

  • “Lingering tension.”

Honesty prepares the body for rest.

🌿 This completes Part 2 of 3.
When you’re ready for Part 3 (Steps 9–12 + full conclusion) just say:

“Next.”

You said:
“Next.”
ChatGPT said:

Thank you, Ross.
Here is Part 3 of 3 — completing your full 3,333-word Pure Mind teaching.

This section includes:

  • Step 9 — Variations of the Practice

  • Step 10 — Common Challenges & Encouragements

  • Step 11 — The Heart Phrase: “It all belongs in LOVE.”

  • Step 12 — Summary & Closing Blessing

When this is complete, your full teaching stands ready to turn into DOCX, PDF, a 7-day course, and audio scripts.

NOTING HEALS ME — A PURE MIND TEACHING

Part 3 of 3 — Steps 9–12 + Conclusion

9. Variations of the Practice

As your relationship with noting deepens, you may discover that different situations call for different styles of noting.
Each variation supports healing in its own way.
There is no right or wrong.
Choose the one that feels most supportive in the moment.

A. One-Word Noting

This is the simplest form.
You notice a sensation, emotion, thought, or energy and gently name it with one soft word.

  • “Fear.”

  • “Softness.”

  • “Heat.”

  • “Thinking.”

  • “Freeze.”

One-word noting keeps your experience grounded and uncomplicated.
It is especially helpful when emotions feel strong or the nervous system is activated.

B. Soft Noting (“Letting It Be Known”)

Instead of using short labels, you simply let the experience know:

  • “I see you.”

  • “I feel this.”

  • “This is here.”

Sometimes words are too sharp.
Soft noting removes labels and replaces them with pure presence.
It is tender.
It is loving.
It is deeply regulating.

C. Body Scan Noting

You bring gentle attention from the feet upward, noticing what is here:

  • “Warmth in feet.”

  • “Tightness in stomach.”

  • “Pressure in chest.”

  • “Softness in throat.”

This form is grounding and stabilizing.
It is ideal when emotions feel heavy, or when you want to reconnect with the body safely and slowly.

D. Emotion-Focused Noting

Here, you name the emotional waves directly:

  • “Sadness.”

  • “Fear.”

  • “Hurt.”

  • “Shame.”

  • “Tenderness.”

This builds emotional courage.
It trains the heart to stay open even in difficult moments.

E. Freeze-State Noting

The freeze response is common in childhood wounds and trauma.
Noting helps you stay connected without becoming overwhelmed.

  • “Numbness.”

  • “Stillness.”

  • “Frozen energy.”

  • “Shallow breath.”

  • “Returning.”

When you name a freeze state, you unblend from it.
You become the witnessing presence that holds the frozen part with warmth.
This is where trauma begins to thaw.

F. Self-Talk Noting

You combine noting with gentle, loving self-talk:

  • “There is fear, and I am here with it.”

  • “There is tension, and it is allowed.”

  • “There is sadness, and it is held.”

This form is particularly aligned with your Pure Mind style.
It blends mindfulness and compassion in a healing, embodied way.

Each variation is a doorway.
All of them lead you back to presence, softness, and the larger truth:

Nothing in your experience is against you.
It is all rising to be met.

10. Common Challenges and Encouragements

Noting is simple, but the human system can be delicate.
Here are the challenges most people encounter, along with the gentle encouragement that helps them through.

Challenge 1 — “I’m overthinking the labels.”

This is natural.
You are learning a new language of awareness.

Encouragement:
Let the label be simple. You cannot get it wrong.
Even “This is here” is enough.

Challenge 2 — “I want relief too quickly.”

Healing has its own pace.
Noting is not a technique to escape your experience—it is a way to meet it.

Encouragement:
Relief often comes indirectly, as a byproduct of presence, not from pushing for results.

Challenge 3 — “I feel overwhelmed.”

This means your system needs shorter doses.

Encouragement:
Notice for one breath.
Anchor for three breaths.
Tiny steps are still healing steps.

Challenge 4 — “I don’t feel anything.”

This usually means there is a freeze or numbness response.

Encouragement:
Gently note the numbness itself:

  • “Numbness.”

  • “Nothing here yet.”

  • “Waiting.”

Even numbness belongs.
Even stillness belongs.

Challenge 5 — “I can’t focus.”

This simply means there is a lot happening inside.

Encouragement:
Note one thing at a time.
Even “Distracted” is a perfectly valid note.

Challenge 6 — “I want to get rid of this feeling.”

This is the mind trying to protect you.

Encouragement:
You can note the desire itself:

  • “Wanting it gone.”

  • “Resistance.”

  • “Protective impulse.”

The moment you note resistance, it softens.

Every challenge is part of the path.
Noting is not about perfection—it is about presence.
And presence grows every time you meet yourself with softness.

11. The Heart Phrase: “It all belongs in LOVE.”

This phrase is the center of the whole teaching.
It is the foundation and the destination.
It is the truth that transforms noting from a technique into a doorway of deep healing.

When you say inwardly,
“It all belongs in LOVE,”
you are affirming:

  • nothing in you is wrong

  • nothing is a mistake

  • nothing needs to hide

  • nothing needs to be pushed away

  • nothing is beyond healing

  • nothing is outside the circle of compassion

This phrase does not mean you approve of everything that happened to you.
It does not mean what others did was okay.
It does not ask you to accept harm or injustice.

It simply means that your inner experience—your sensations, emotions, thoughts, and energies—belong inside the field of love that heals you.

Your fear belongs in love.
Your anger belongs in love.
Your sadness belongs in love.
Your freeze belongs in love.
Your confusion belongs in love.
Your memories belong in love.
Your inner child belongs in love.
Your longing belongs in love.

When noting becomes infused with this phrase, healing accelerates, because:

  • the system stops fighting itself

  • shame loses its grip

  • resistance softens

  • your inner world feels welcomed

  • the nervous system unwinds

  • trauma slowly releases its tension

  • your heart feels held rather than judged

The deeper truth is this:

When you note your experience with love, the parts of you that have been waiting for decades finally begin to relax.

This phrase is more than words.
It is a posture of being.
It is a way of relating to yourself.
It is the healing atmosphere you create around your experience.

And in this atmosphere, everything in you finds room to breathe.

12. Summary: A Life of Loving Presence

Noting is more than a practice.
It is a way of living with honesty, tenderness, and courage.
It teaches you how to meet each moment of your life with clarity and care.

Noting reveals what is true.

You see your sensations.
You see your emotions.
You see your thoughts.
You see the state of your nervous system.

Noting softens what is painful.

You no longer push away what hurts.
You no longer collapse into what overwhelms you.
You meet the pain in small, loving breaths.

Noting strengthens your inner witness.

You become more grounded.
More spacious.
More connected to Presence.
More aware of the Pure Mind within you.

Noting shows you that healing is possible.

Every moment becomes workable.
Every experience becomes approachable.
Every part of you becomes welcome.

Noting awakens the truth:

“It all belongs in LOVE.”

When you live from this truth, your whole relationship with life transforms.
Your fear becomes a guest rather than an enemy.
Your sadness becomes a messenger rather than a weight.
Your memories become part of your unfolding rather than wounds to avoid.

You begin to trust yourself.
You begin to trust your experience.
You begin to trust love.

And slowly, quietly, beautifully—
you become the one who can hold your whole life in gentleness.

Scroll to Top