Loving-Kindness - not very easy for me

My experience with the loving-kindness exercise was interesting.  I tried it three times a day apart.  I found it beneficial but difficult.  I have always had a hard time loving myself.  I always feel that I’m undeserving because I’m not worthy of it.  But I do find it very easy to love others.  My daughter was who I thought of with tenderness, my boyfriend who just lost his favorite grandmother unexpectedly was who I breathed out loving kindness to, and all the patients at the hospital (strangers) were easy to send loving kindness to.  It is just difficult to give love to myself.  I would recommend this to others as a way to learn to love yourself if you have trouble with that.

Mental workouts are beneficial on so many levels.  It helps you concentrate better but yet makes you more aware of what is going on around you.  I think I can implement mental workouts into my life to help me love myself.  If I can love myself I will be better at loving others.

Rainbows for relaxation...on a scale of 1-10

So how do I feel about my physical, spiritual and psychological well-being?  That is tough because some days I feel like a 10 in all areas and other days I feel like a 2!  But today I feel like a 7 in my physical well-being.  I have my health and I'm working on getting my body in better shape.  My spiritual life I'm at 4.  I was raised in the church and really miss not having one to attend right now.  My psychological well-being I feel at a 9.  A year ago I left a 25 year marriage that took me 20 years to realize was verbally abusive and 5 years to get up the courage to leave.  All of 2012 was a year of realizing that I am OK and that what I do is of value and I don't have to be perfect for someone else.

Now...my goals:
1.  Physical - get to the gym at least 4 days a week and walk every day for 15 minutes at work.
2.  Spiritual - go to church and meditate at least 4 days a week.
3.  Psychological - allow no negative talk to creep into my head.  My new motto is "I am me!"  Very improper English but very important for me to hear that I am my own person. 

On to the rainbow relaxation exercise...my first question is who entitled it "The Crime of the Century."  Right off the bat that doesn't sound very relaxing, it sounds intriguing.  I digress.  The reader's voice is very nice a soothing.  The music is nice.  The phrases to repeat were wonderful and uplifting!  However, every time I tried to visualize the colors coming out of my various body parts I kept seeing some freaky body from some Sci-Fi movie with laser beams of color emanating from it.  I tried this relaxation exercise on two different nights thinking maybe I was more stressed or something I ate at lunch gave me colorful visions.  No go...the second time I still had trouble getting the rainbow body floating through space out of my sight.  It was rather distracting.  Since I'm in the grading scale mood I give this exercise a 3.  I have heard some great meditation cd's however, this one didn't do it for me. 

Thanks for reading!
Dana

Hello class~  Still trying to learn this tech blog stuff.  I'm very excited about learning different techniques for relaxation.  I'm going through some yukky stuff now in my life and it really does help to take the time to breath and slow down!  Hope everyone has a great week.

Good afternoon everyone.  Just got done watching the football playoffs and decided it was time to hit the homework.  I just listened to Journey On and found it very interesting and relaxing.  I've been having some wrist problems lately so the thought process of focusing on my hands and arms was very time appropriate.  I like to meditate right before I go to bed.  I find it helps me sleep better and I perform better at work the next day.  To everyone...have fun on the Journey.

Welcome!

Welcome to my very first blog!