Loving Kindness
This week I listened to Dacher's CD tracks #1 and #2. Honestly, my experience with this exercise was a little difficult. It was difficult for me to stay focused and think about the loved one who was suffering pain, I am all about compassion and helping people but what does that have to do with breathing their pain in and out, I mean I can reflect on an individual's pain and suffering and come up with how I can help them but how can you breathe their pain.
I would however recommend this exercise of loving kindness to others to help them find the inner loving kindness for their self; since we all are different you never know who can benefit from this exercise, so I will let the client try it out and form their own opinion.
Mental Workout
The concept of the mental work out is that of working daily through meditation and mind exercise to grow mentally and spiritually. Research has shown with as little as a hour a day devoted to practice of mind exercises one can develop better self-awareness and mind, body, and spiritual health. There are many different ways to implement mental work outs but, one I enjoy is meditation. I find that when I meditate on a daily basis I not only feel better physically and emotionally, I also notice that little things that used to bother me don't any more. I feel at peace when I meditate and I can handle life’s challenges better. It is definitely worth my time and would definitely recommend it.
Hi ! I have listened to the meditation/guided imagery links and really enjoyed them, I am planning to listen to the Tracks tomorrow -- I am interested in finding out if I feel the same way, or react to them the same or differently... The loving and kindness meditation video was very beautiful and inspiraitonal... and found another link that was very peaceful and by the end you were being lifted up through the sky and parting the clouds.. I have included the link below if you want to try it :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/1GautamaBuddha?feature=pyv&ad=9516896152&kw=buddhist%20meditation#p/a/u/0/zRDsbXr9CY8
Hi Afrin, sorry that you did not enjoy the track on loving kindness. I think that the breathing in and out exercise represented taking in the issue, analyzing it and expelling a thought on how you can help. Whether it be with a phone call, taking the person out to luch for conversation, monetary factors etc. That was my take on it anyway. As far as the mental workout is concerned. I am totally with you. Implementing meditation into my daily life has been very benificial for me as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Afrin, I felt that the CD was difficult too, but only at first. I kept thinking about all the stuff I have to. However once I let my mind have at it, I felt all that pain others. When I completes the CD, I felt like a weight was lifted off of me.
ReplyDeleteHi Afrin,
ReplyDeleteI can certainly see your point about the difficulty visualizing breathing in someone else's pain. I kept thinking of the movie The Green Mile. In this movie, an inmate on death row is able to breath in other's sicknesses and then he breaths out a bunch of bugs. I couldn't help but think "if I breath in someone else's pain, what do I do with it?" But, other parts of the relaxation CD were a bit easier to practice.
Regarding the mental workout, I have just started while in this class to practice short bouts of daily meditation. I must admit I do feel better and more at peace. It's hard for me to imagine having enough "alone time" to be able to complete and hour, but if I could, I bet it would feel great!
Sherry :)
Hi Jenn,
ReplyDeleteI agree it was difficult for me at first but when I participated in this exercise the second time the thoughts of others who are suffering permitted me to address the spirituality involved in accepting others sorrows and pains. I know I cannot help everyone, yet I can pray for them, and ask God to give them guidance. I usually give up on an exercise if I do not like it the first time, but of course the point is to practice it! I just actually figured that out.
Intersting post Afrin. I had a difficult time with the exercise as well but mine had to do with the long pauses and my mental focus. Hence, this was definiteley a mental workout for me. I beleive that loving kindness will work its magic the more I practice. Persistence is the key. Even with all detraction in my mind I was able to come to the conclusion that I have a wall that I have built in order to keep my angry emotions at bay. Once the exercise was complete I felt beeter about the dicicions I had made. My goal is to spend more time with my mother and at the same time keep my emotions under control. This ought to be exciting!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Afrin
ReplyDeleteI agree i also found it a bit hard to connect with the exercise. By trying the breathing exercise I found it a bit pointless, but nonetheless I still continued with it and after awhile i began to feel more at ease. Once I got past all the concentrating on try to follow the directions given, i was able to lose myself within the sounds. Daily meditation can really improve a persons overall mood and i will definitely try to find a way to keep it in my schedule.