Loving-Kindness unit 6

 I really enjoy practicing the loving –kindness meditation. It helps me to put aside any judgments, grudges and negative thoughts that I may have towards others. Projecting Love is so powerful. My favorite part of the Loving-kindness meditation is “May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering. May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.” This makes me not only wish well for others but makes me an active participant in helping others find health, happiness and wholeness. It becomes very difficult to have ill feelings towards others. May I assist you in being your “best self”? Is what this says to me. Can I help you to be Happy? Can I help to end your suffering? I just love that!

My assessment experience tells me that I need to focus on my biological health. Proper nutrition and exercise are some of the things that I focus on the least with myself. After several health scares and issues, this should be top priority. How will I be able to assist others with these aspects if my own biological health is not in order? It’s like when you’re on an airplane and they tell you to put your mask on first in an emergency so that you could help others. For me focusing on my nutrition and fitness is like putting my “mask” on first.

Practice 2: The Subtle Mind practice

The loving kindness exercise was more of an outward exercise. I was projecting my love and kindness from within outward to others, so my focus was love. With the subtle mind exercise I was not focusing on anything but my breath and quieting my mind. This exercise was more beneficial to myself. I have had many distractions in my life recently and have felt somewhat overwhelmed. By doing this subtle mind exercise it has become so much easier to release stress. At times when I have been feeling anxious or stressed, focusing on my breathing help me to be peaceful in the moment. The great thing about this exercise is that I can practice it anywhere at any time. I have found myself doing this exercise at work, before bed and sometimes in the morning before starting my day. Stress often makes me feel weighted down, but this exercise actually gives me a bit of an energy boost. By removing the constant talking that my mind is doing, I feel that I can just “be”. Also when I observe my thoughts, sometimes it amuses me how silly some of them actually are. I find that I tell myself some of the craziest things.

Loving Kindness

 This experience was a very pleasant one for me. I found it particularly beneficial when it asked to focus the love and kindness that you felt for your loved ones to everyone, including your enemies. I don't have many enemies, in fact I don't feel that I have any. I do have some people that I do not like so much for various reasons. But when I imagined them in front of me and wished for them happiness and kindness, I began to view these "enemies" in a different light. I definitely feel that this practice is could be beneficial to many other people as well and I would definitely recommend it.

 The concept of a mental workout is to contemplative practice to exercise our spiritual mind. This helps us to achieve a higher level of consciousness. The benefits include being at ease, peaceful and kind. This will help us to evolve our consciousness and in turn help our physiological health.

I rate my A) Physical wellbeing a 7. The reason being is that although I am relatively healthy, I have several minor ailments that are not yet under control. I am being monitored by a doctor but I feel that I can do more myself to help myself than the doctors can. My goal is to continue to be proactive in my own health. I have taken many steps to achieving this but whole body health is no quick fix, so it is taking some time. Although I am making progress.

B) Spiritual Wellbeing- My spiritual wellbeing is an 8. I only give it an 8 because I feel that there is always room to grow and room for improvement spiritually. However I feel extremely spiritually connected.

C) Psychological wellbeing- I would give myself a 9 because I am a very mentally healthy and stable person. I have had to work on this as a young adult as I experienced periods of depression and anxiety. I have worked through some things and feel very comfortable in the place that I am in right now.

 

I really enjoyed The Crime of the Century relaxation exercise. I am curious to why it is named that. I felt extremely relaxed and strong. The visualizations where very good and I think I will listen to it again.