Mental recordings exercise
In this exercise we will document the recordings that your mind plays in your head without you explicitly having requested it.
Preparation
Definition
A mental recording is a piece of text that is stored in your memory which gets played by your mind as thoughts. They can be a single word or a simple assertion such as: "I am not enough" or "I am a great storyteller". Collectively, all those thoughts are often referred as an inner voice.
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Usage
​In a separate session we will analyze the mental recordings captured and try to understand where they come from and how they affect current behavior.
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Material needed
Running gear (running shoes, clothes and accessories), sheets of paper and a pen or a pencil.
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Disclaimer
This exercise is aimed at recording memories in the realm of mental health, not mental disease. If bringing up memories has an extreme negative effect, please stop this exercise and visit your doctor or psychologist as soon as possible.
Running exercise
1. The first part of the exercise begins by preparing for a run by searching your gear and establishing the distance you will be running, this first run should be a distance that is not too fatiguing, and that you are confident you will be finishing (i.e. three kilometers).
2. Turn on already your perception mechanisms into what your mind is telling you and imagine you are running a voice recorder over these thoughts; write them down on a sheet of paper. The thoughts can be simple, try to record all of them which pertain to beliefs about the exercise you are about to do and note down which ones are more frequent. An example of a thought would be: "I don't feel like running at this moment" or "This is going to turn out very well". After the run you will be writing down these thoughts as well; therefore, try to remember as many and as vividly as you can, with preference to the most frequent ones.
3. Jog softly two thirds of the distance and keep listening to the stories your mind is playing you.
4. For the last third of the run, increate the speed where you are considerably putting more effort than just jogging and keep recording the thoughts that are passing through your mind.
5. As soon as you are back from the run, write down all the thoughts you can remember and note down the frequency with which they appeared.
6. The second part of the exercise should take place on another day. Repeat steps one through five but this time set yourself a distance that you know is a little beyond your reach. If ten kilometers would be pushing it then your distance will be eleven kilometers. The goal is to record the difference in tone at which your inner voice is broadcasting thoughts. If your inner voice gets more aggravated, notice the difference. Sometimes its "defensiveness " goes up, ignore it as it is trying to convince you to not do this part of the exercise and proceed as planned, this just means you are going outside of your comfort zone.