Key points

The emotional quality of our thoughts affect our states of mind and mood.

Mindfulness teaches us to greet difficult emotions with compassion, but this can be difficult in practice.

A simple thought experiment can be helpful in cultivating a supportive inner voice.

A recent study published in the journal, Emotion , discusses the relationship between mind wandering and mood, and suggests that it isn’t mind wandering, itself, that is to blame for our unhappy states, but rather the emotional tone of our thoughts as they wander.

Personally, I can certainly corroborate the effect of unhelpful self-talk and the less-than-awesome moods it can inspire. In developing the capacity to mindfully sit with my own thoughts, it didn’t take long to notice just how many of them were jud

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