Lesson 8 Transcript
Below is the full transcript of Lesson 8
This lesson and transcript are part of the RAD for Life social-emotional learning program. Educators, counsellors, and parents may view and use this material for personal learning or classroom discussion. The content may not be reproduced, redistributed, or used commercially without permission. The lesson is provided so you can preview and plan how RAD may be used in your classroom or particular setting. Copyright © RAD for Life. All rights reserved.
Lesson 8: Taking Notice — Looking In
The following transcript accompanies the RAD Lesson 8 video and explores the strategy Taking Notice — Looking In. In this lesson, learners practice noticing their thoughts and feelings in a helpful way so they can respond to challenges and continue making RAD moves that align with their values.
Welcome back to radforlife.com — the home of the RAD SEL Lessons.
This is Lesson 8: Taking Notice — Looking In.
By now, you know the essential ideas and skills in RAD: recognizing your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, labeling them as comfortable or uncomfortable, understanding that there is no such thing as a “bad” feeling, reflecting on your values, and recognizing RAD moves, notRAD moves, and RoAD Blocks.
You’ve learned how uncomfortable thoughts and feelings can become RoAD Blocks — leaving us stuck doing notRAD moves. One of the big ideas in RAD is that when we struggle with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, they can get in the way of doing what is important to us.
If we learn to accept those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings — instead of avoiding them or trying to change them — we can stay focused on the Do part of RAD: doing what’s important to us and making RAD moves that align with our values.
This brings us to our first strategy to help with this: Taking Notice.
Taking Notice is a strategy designed to help you respond to your RoAD Blocks — those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings that can leave you stuck and lead to notRAD moves.
It’s such an important skill that we divide it into two parts:
Taking Notice — Looking In
Taking Notice — Looking Around
In this lesson, we will focus on Looking In.
Now, one important point: when we’re stuck, our uncomfortable thoughts and feelings can block us from following our values. The strategies you are about to learn don’t erase those thoughts and feelings. Instead, they help us accept them, so we can focus on doing what’s important to us.
Looking In is one strategy to help us accept our RoAD Blocks so we can make RAD moves.
Here’s how it works.
Remember how we learned to identify our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours? We’re going to use that skill here.
Step one of Looking In is simply noticing when we are having an uncomfortable thought or feeling. You already practiced this in Lesson 2.
Step two, which is new, is to purposefully label the thought or feeling in a specific way using a sentence like:
“I’m noticing I’m having the thought that…”
or
“I’m noticing I’m having the feeling of…”
For example:
If you’re nervous about an event, you might say:
“I’m noticing I’m having the feeling of nervousness.”
If you’re thinking you might fail, you could say:
“I’m noticing I’m having the thought that I might fail.”
Do you have to say this out loud?
No — you can do it silently in your mind. But it helps to stick to that sentence format.
You might wonder: why do it this way?
We do this for two reasons.
First, it reminds us that we are not our RoAD Blocks. Our uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are experiences happening inside us, but they are not who we are.
Second, it helps prevent our RoAD Blocks from taking charge of our behaviour.
For example, when we say “I’m angry,” it can sound like anger defines us. But we are much more than that. If anger takes over, we might act just to escape the feeling instead of doing what truly matters to us.
That’s when we end up making notRAD moves — when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings take control — instead of RAD moves, where our values guide our actions.
Another time we may get stuck is when we spend a lot of energy trying to argue with our thoughts and feelings.
For example, if we think “I hate them,” we might start debating with ourselves about why we shouldn’t think that or why we are a bad person for thinking it.
In RAD, we try not to argue with our minds. Instead, we notice the thought or feeling and move on, focusing on making RAD moves.
Our minds are busy places. Thoughts and feelings naturally come and go. When we spend all our energy wrestling with them, we lose freedom to do what matters most.
When I was younger, my friends used to make a joke. Whenever someone said, “I’m hungry,” someone would jump in and say, “Nice to meet you, Hungry — I’m so-and-so.”
It was maybe funny the first time, but by the tenth time… not so much.
Still, that joke taught me something years later. My friends were right — I wasn’t hungry. I was noticing the feeling of hunger.
When we recognize and name our thoughts and feelings like that, they become easier to accept instead of getting stuck in them.
If I’m stuck on the thought “I’m a loser,” that thought can take over. But when I say:
“I’m noticing I’m having the thought that I’m a loser,”
it helps create space. I can accept that the thought is there while still choosing to follow my values and make RAD moves.
The thought might stay or it might go away — but either way, I know there is more to me than that thought.
When we see thoughts and feelings as part of our experience — not the whole thing — we can move forward and do what matters most.
Overall, Taking Notice — Looking In allows us to step back from our RoAD Blocks — thoughts, images, memories, and feelings — so we can see them for what they are: temporary experiences, not facts or commands.
This helps us accept them so we can direct our efforts toward following our values and making RAD moves.
As we continue learning RAD, you’ll discover more strategies. But Taking Notice is one you will probably use the most.
Remember the format:
“I’m noticing I’m having the thought that…”
or
“I’m noticing I’m having the feeling of…”
Use it the next time you feel stuck. You may find that’s enough to help you follow your values and make a RAD move.
Next lesson, we will learn the other way to Take Notice — Looking Around, Looking In’s non-identical twin.
Until next time,
Be RAD.