First of
all let me say thank you to all who comment on my blog. I don’t always get a chance to reply to your
comments but all of them have been encouraging and uplifting. We all lead very busy lives and I know it
takes time and effort to compose a response and I appreciate all of them.
Now…on to
Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind exercises.
I have been listening to the Loving Kindness exercise since last week
and then this week added the Subtle Mind exercise. I think both exercises are good and I felt
better after taking the time to do them.
But personally I think I got more out of the Subtle Mind Exercise. I think we should have done that first. The speaker makes a statement about calming
the busy mind. I didn’t realize how busy
my mind was. It kept jumping around and
being busy. The more I listened to the
exercise the more calm my mind became and I could focus on my thoughts and let
them go. I think we need to learn to be
calm and then we can learn to share our loving kindness.
If we don’t
take care of our spiritual wellness our physical wellness will suffer. There have been studies that show that people
that are depressed or cynical are more likely to become ill. Since I am older I have seen trends in my
life. When I am under extreme stress and
I plow through it without regard to my spiritual health I usually get sick within
two to three days of the stressful situation.
When I take the time to read my bible and meditate, even if stress comes
I manage to keep it together and remain calm.
I agree with you that I think I would have benefited more from using the subtle mind exercise before the loving-kindness exercise.
ReplyDeleteLearning to quiet my mind and lose focus would have been a good thing to have known before starting loving-kindness to focus on specifics.
I think once I have the subtle mind down more easily I will go back and retry the loving-kindness exercise by calming my mind. I knew my mind has always been busy, I have an extremely busy life and my mind follows along with it. I only realize how busy when I try to sleep and it takes 30-60 minutes or more for me to shut my mind down enough to sleep. I was pleasantly surprised at my second attempt with the subtle mind that I was able to actually relax enough to "zone out" even if it was only for a short time.
I used it again before I went to bed this morning (I work third shift - so Sunday morning) and I was able to fall asleep in less than 5 minutes instead of 30 or more.
As we learn more I definitely am seeing a larger connection than I did before not just between mind and body, but including spirituality also. I am glad that I am coming to learn that spirituality can be, but doesn't have to be tied to religion specifically. It can be something as simple as taking that time to enjoy the waves crashing on the beach, a sunrise, a sunset, the scent of flowers in the spring, etc.
Don't you wish they would have focused on all three aspects while we were in school? Instead of just playing games, to have time to meditate (or pray) or work on quieting our mind would have definitely helped I think. I am going to start working with my kids to focus on the mind and spirit as well as the body for exercise and I hope it "sticks" since they are three and five. I hope they can get the benefits of seeing all three as integral parts of their overall health.
Hello Dana,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the subtle mind. When a distraction floats in I tell myself to breathe and it goes away. I am definitely becoming more comfortable and confident with these exercises.
I was reading up on some meditation techniques and I read that the reason some people make the Ohm sound is to rid themselves of mental chatter and distractions. I have teenagers, so no sound effects for me, but I thought that was interesting to know.