Loving-Kindness
I found that the sound of the waves during
the Loving-Kindness exercise helped me to relax and feel at ease. I thought it
was difficult to open my heart like the lady said and allow happiness to fill
my heart and thoughts. As the exercise went on I felt that it was a little
easier to let myself go and feel love, kindness, gentleness, and peace toward
myself and others. I didn’t like thinking about a loved one suffering but I
could see how this might help you to cope with a similar situation. I would
recommend this exercise to others because you never know what people are going
through and this would help them to feel better about their selves. You need to
love yourself before you can share your love with others.
“Mental workout” is the concept of exercising
our minds like athletes workout their bodies to stay in shape. To evolve our
psychospiritual minds as we work toward health, happiness, and wholeness we
must put the effort in daily. (Dacher, 2006) Working our minds
for an hour a day can help us to work toward our mind, body, and spirit
wholeness. Research indicates that loving-kindness attracts loving-kindness and
that we get back what we give. (Dacher, 2006) I think that you can
use mental workouts to help calm your mind and allow you to have more positive
actions and thoughts. This will allow you to grow your psychospiritual mind.
Reference
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to
Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications.
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to relax and enjoy this exercise and that you were able to get something positive out of it. I agree that you have to find a way to love yourself. This was a principle that I was raised on. I have a good friend that I do not think likes herself very much and have tried to encourage her to find ways to love herself but have not been very successful yet. I also would recommend this exercise or one very like this to people I think would benefit from the exercise.
I have always believed that exercising the mind was a good idea. This is most likely the only way to exercise your brain. The brain is like a muscle that will atrophy without exercise and with an atrophied brain you have an atrophied mind and nothing can change once a muscle is atrophied
Jennifer I agree I did not enjoy thinking about someone I love suffering but it did feel a little empowering to take their suffering in and breathe it away. I wish things were that easy! I think this exercise is really good at practicing acceptance. One, to accept yourself in a loving manner. Two, the people you are close with, and finally the world and all those who inhabit it. I think more people would benefit from this exercise! Great post this week.
ReplyDeleteUlani
Jennifer I agree the waves were relaxing. These things are suppose to help, for me it only helps for a little bit, then I get all stressed out again. People do need to workout there minds, it could help people get more in life.
ReplyDeleteSally
Thank you all for your comments.
ReplyDeleteCourtney: I hope that you are able to help your friend to love herself. It is important to be able to love yourself before you try to love others. Exercising your brain is a great idea and like you said if you don't use it you lose it.
Ulani: I would have to agree with you that once I tried this exercise the second time that I did feel empowered in taking the suffering away from my loved ones. It would be nice if things were that simple but it does help you to practice acceptance.
Sally: Some things seem to work for some people while not working for others. You just need to find something that relaxs you. If it is a calming noise or the smell of your favorite lotion, or even a hot bath.
As I mentioned to Kisha, at first I could still hear the noises from outside, but slowly they drifted away. Getting further into the recording, I found myself feeling great love for my sister. I'm not quite sure why my mind concentrated on her, but I now feel an urgency to reach out to her. Implementing a program like this into my daily life will be a challenge, but one that makes me feel less stress.
ReplyDeleteCarol
Good point about the struggle to think about thinking of others outside of ourselves and not really know what is going on in their lives. You can get on YouTube and find countless videos of people who see a stranger in need and walk right by and not even attempt to help them. I am not even talking about monetary needs, but physical. I have seen videos of people who get hit by cars and are lying in the street and no one stops to help them, those who are walking keep walking and even the others cars just drive around the body. I have also seen videos of children being kidnapped right in the middle of a public place and everyone just standing there watching. It makes you wonder where our culture is heading if we are standing by and allowing this to happen and not even having the thought process to help these people in need.
ReplyDelete