FREE Worksheets
Emotional
Assessment Log for
Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction
Practical and
engaging
printable tools!
Elana Rosenbaum, MS, LICSW
The Effect of Feelings:
Pleasant, Unpleasant and Neutral
The second foundation of mindfulness is awareness of feelings. This can include emotions,
but it refers to bringing awareness to feeling tones, the experiencing of pleasant, unpleasant
or what lies between these states, which is sometimes labelled neutral. These feeling tones
can influence how we respond to events, mental and physical, inside us, or outside ourselves.
We are hard wired to protect ourselves, and by resisting what we consider to be unpleasant
and craving or clinging to what we perceive as pleasant, we perpetuate suffering.
Often this is unconscious. Bringing awareness to these feelings and resulting thoughts and
sensations opens the door to change - and greater happiness.
For example, I was recently introducing mindfulness to a group of elders in an assisted living
facility. Some had come to the room with walkers; a few were in wheel chairs or walked
with a cane. They had come together to discuss wise aging led by a social worker and a
clergyman. For most, the assisted living facility represented the last stage of their lives and a
loss of independence. Their minds were alive, but the aging process had altered both body
and mind.
I invited them to pause and bring attention to the position of their body and the feel of breath
moving in and out of the body with curiosity and kindness. The leaders then asked the group
how they felt about aging and living in the facility. Many of the thoughts and words they used
to describe this were negative.
One woman was particularly distressed. “I’ve lost ‘me,’ she said.
She had been a writer, “My mind isn’t working like it used to. I can’t write
anymore . . . There’s nothing to do here. “I can’t grow anymore.”
Others in the group shifted in their chairs, uncomfortable.
One woman spoke to her. “You can write and there’s a lot to do here.”
“No one gives me a chance to mourn.” The first woman responded. The room
was quiet and the clergyman asked the rest of the group,“How do you
feel?” “Angry,” said one, “loss,” said another, “frustrated, sad,” said a third.
As this was happening, I felt my eyes tearing, a constriction in my throat and an awareness
of sadness. Then thoughts followed. The first thought was how I really did not want to go to
an assisted living facility to live or to be infirm. I recognized “fear” and named it to myself. The
feeling tone was “unpleasant.” Then I began mentally thinking about inquiry.
The question “how do you feel?” seemed very non-specific to me. I wondered where in
the body were there sensations. I also noted that the facilitator had not asked the woman
speaking more about how she felt but moved to the whole group. Judgment: I thought it
Copyright © 2020, Elana Rosenbaum. The Heart of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. All rights reserved.
would be more skillful to stay with the woman longer and inquire into her statement about
needing to mourn and feeling she was not allowed to do this. As this thought entered my
awareness and I began mentally evaluating what a skillful inquiry might be, there was a
shift. The feeing tone of unpleasant was much milder. Sensation shifted to my belly. It was
tighter, a sign of discomfort, uneasiness and a recognition that it was hard for me not to be
the leader and respond to this woman as I might in an MBSR class. As my thoughts shifted
to my pre-frontal cortex, and I began problem-solving, I was absorbed in thought and there
was less body awareness. The feeing tone was in the neutral range.
There was no good or bad, right or wrong to my responses but awareness allowed movement
of feelings, thoughts and sensations. I didn’t feel stuck or lost in any particular state. How
might the woman who lost “me” be met so she could adapt to change? What allows us to
take a step back so there is no me to be lost but a being to be found?
The diaries below are designed to help us take that step back and observe the sequence of
events, thoughts, sensations and feelings to discover our habitual responses and examine
their effects. As you fill out the journal and bring into awareness reactions to events that are
felt as pleasant or unpleasant remember not to be judgmental or self-critical.
What arises is conditioned. We feel what we feel and think what we think. It’s part of being
human, but we don’t need to drown in these thoughts and feelings or get stuck there. If you
catch yourself doing this, pause, congratulate yourself for noticing this habit and return to
the here and now. Remember, it’s a process of discovery. With awareness, there is choice.
Without it, the same patterns blindly get repeated. “You get what you get but don’t get
upset” is a slogan now taught to children in schools. We will get upset, it’s inevitable, but we
don’t need to stay there - next moment, new opportunity.
Copyright © 2020, Elana Rosenbaum. The Heart of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. All rights reserved.
Pleasant Events Diary
Each day, be as specific as you can in describing an experience that is pleasant and noting what you
experienced in mind and body as well as what happened next.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Triggering
Event
Thoughts
Feeling
Tone
Emotions
Sensations
Outcome
What are you learning by doing this?
Copyright © 2020, Elana Rosenbaum. The Heart of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. All rights reserved.
Saturday
Unpleasant Events Diary
Be as specific as you can in describing an experience that is unpleasant and noting what you experienced in
mind and body, as well as what happened next.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Triggering
Event
Feeling
Thoughts
Emotions
Sensations
Consequences
Review your diaries and your relationship to the events considered either pleasant and unpleasant. How did
the perceptions and sensations differ? What was similar? What can you learn from this?
Copyright © 2020, Elana Rosenbaum. The Heart of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. All rights reserved.
Elana Rosenbaum, MS, LICSW, has been integrating mindfulness
with psychotherapy for over 30 years. She is a leader in the clinical application
of mindfulness meditation to cancer care and is a pioneering teacher of
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Center for Mindfulness, the University
of Massachusetts Medical School. She has authored, Here for Now: Living Well with
Cancer through Mindfulness and Being Well (even when you’re sick): Mindfulness Practices for People
Living with Cancer and Other Serious Illness.
Elana has a private practice in psychotherapy in Worcester, Massachusetts and is a sought-after
mindfulness coach, teacher, speaker, Course leader and research consultant. She has been featured
in “Chronicle” on CBS and mentioned in many magazine articles including Yoga Journal, Health,
Coping, and the PBS audio series, “Walking through the Storm”. She is currently working on her third
book, a workbook of mindfulness exercises for optimal living.
Therapeutic Mindfulness Practices Are More than
Relaxation, Meditation or Breathing
Popular therapy models like CBT, DBT, ACT, and somatic
therapies are built on the foundation of mindful awareness.
You’ve likely heard about the power of mindfulness, especially
for treating anxiety. Now, discover how to apply it in therapy in
an individualized way that helps clients immediately see the
positive impact on their symptoms, and their lives.
Enroll in our all-new online certification training course
Mastering Anxiety with Simple, Evidence-Based Techniques
and discover how to use dozens of customizable mindfulness
tools to help each of your clients reduce anxiety quickly and for
good—and earn double certification in anxiety treatment and
mindfulness-informed therapy.
BONUS! We’ll cover the cost of your first year of both
certifications (a $199.98 value—for FREE!).
Visit www.pesi.com/mindanxietycert for more information.
800-844-8260