Unit 6-Universal Loving Kindness & Assessment

Hmmm, how do I start?   As I practiced the universal loving kindness exercise, I found myself changing the words of the phrases to words that I would normally say and keep the same meaning.  I also started to pray to God during this exercise that he would continue to give me the strength to complete the tasks I was asking for help with.  I will say that stilling my mind is easier than trying to remember phrases to repeat, and it is much easier to pray from my heart for the same things.    I will practice this exercise or add it to my other exercises that I am trying to do each day, prayer for the world is beneficial to us all.

While reading over and completing the personal assessment, it became shocking clear to me that I need to work on interpersonal relationships with others.  I have been so caught up in work and school, that it became easy to brush off relationships that were important to me in the past.  With the death and funeral of my friend Nicky this week, I can clearly see again how important it is to tell people that you love them.  I realize that to fix my interpersonal relationships, I first need to fix myself.  I need to make a change in my life that opens up time for me to work on these relationships.  I also need to be more open to new experiences with my friends and loved ones.  I just need to stop saying no and go enjoy my wonderful family and friends.  In this situation, there is nothing in the practice and only in the doing.
Dina

The Subtle Mind...

Wow, where do I start.  I enjoyed this exercise so much that I am still very calm mentally.  I would say that in comparison to the Loving-Kindness exercise this exercise was so much more beneficial to my mental health.  There was no part of it that was hard to do, and I realized that following my breathing is something that I do all the time and it was very easy to calm my mental paths.  Even when I tried to wander off on random thoughts, I found myself sliding back into the still and calmness.  I wonder if anyone else noticed the colors that danced before their eyes while their minds were calm?  As I sat with my eyes closed and enjoyed the stillness, I could see shades of green, violet, blue and purple flashing before my eyes like beautiful lightning.  Even now sitting here writing this blog, I still feel like I am at peace, and calm in my mind and body.  I truly understand how being mentally calm, correlates to us being physically healthy.  Right now I can not describe how "well" I feel.  I will truly seek to feel this way everyday, and continue to grow in mental strength, and wellness.
Dina

Loving Kindness and a Mental Workout..

I have to admit that the first time I tried to complete this activity I was not in the right frame of mind to try to relax or take in someone else's suffering.  I literally had to get up and walk away from the computer and do something else.  I waited until the next day to listen to the exercise again, this time I was actually able to really take in what the speaker was saying and put the thoughts I was having through the mental process necessary for me to benefit from the actions.  I would recommend this exercise to others but do suggest that they reach a level of calm before trying to internalize others suffering.  That was the hardest part of the exercise and I actually felt a pressure in my chest on the in-breath, and a release on the out-breath.  I think that the more times I do this exercise it will become easier for me to accept others suffering and be able to genuinely send love, and wholeness to them, at least in my mind.  This mental repetition is what we read about called the mental workout.  That basically means that exercising our minds will increase our ability to actualize our feelings about ourselves and others.  I agree that the mental workout may be one of the most important workouts we do in our daily lives.  I am re-working my daily schedule to include more mental workout time through out the day, and I agree that starting with 5 minutes and working my way up to a hour each day is the right way improve my mental wellness and strength.
Dina

My reflection..

Based on my immediate reaction to the material this week and on a scale of 1-10 I would have to say that right now I am scoring a 5 on my physical wellbeing, a 6 on my spiritual wellbeing, and a 4 on my psychological wellbeing.  I think that I am scoring low at this time due to increased stress at work and at home.  I try to do some type of relaxation exercise daily to manage my stress and stress symptoms, but sometimes the stress is overwhelming and can not be controlled by a single exercise a day.  I would love to say I have more time to relax, but I work a full time job, a part time job and am a full time student, so the only other time I have is when I sleep.  I think that all of my personal aspects of wellbeing are being affected and I am barely hanging on.

I want to make some realistic goals for myself for my physical wellbeing, and that will be that I will ride by exercise bike for 45-60 minutes 3 times a week, and add 15 minutes of stretching.  I used to exercise 5 times a week, but life got in the way.

I plan to take more quiet time for me to meditate this week for my spiritual wellbeing, mainly because I know I need it to survive.  Stress is difficult.

I also plan to take more personal time for me to do something that I enjoy for my psychological well being.

I have really enjoyed the YouTube videos listed in the seminar each week, and have saved a few as favorites on my computer.  When I am feeling overwhelmed I plan to watch several videos until I have relaxed and worked on healing my mind.  I also plan to read a book that I have been wanting to read for fun this week, to improve my peace of mind and enjoy myself.  I also plan to incorporate more steps into my day to increase my activity level and physical wellbeing.

At first I admit that I did not like the relaxation exercise for this week, I thought that it was difficult but when I sat down I was very stressed and decided to listen anyway.  I am glad that I did, I could really imagine the colors coming from my body and I felt grounded, centered, loved, able to love and in control of my world for a short time.  I am not sure that for an enhanced relaxation exercise that I would listen to something that seemed like work, but today it served its purpose.
Dina

Relaxed..

I am sitting here very shortly after listening to the relaxation link for this week,and I am so relaxed and yes energized.  I had just finished eating my supper when I started listening to the link and my stomach started churning like it was really digesting when I was trying to direct the blood back to my abdominal area.  I really enjoyed the relaxation speaker, he had a relaxing voice and almost made me want to listen to the link again. I learned that I actually liked Guided Imagery from the class that I took two terms ago and I use it all the time now when I feel my stress levels rising.  Hope you all had a relaxing time as well.
Dina

Welcome to my world..

I just wanted to say hi to everyone that has joined my blog this past week, and to let you all know that I look forward to reading everyones blogs for the next 9 weeks.  Good luck in the class and see you on the discussion board and on the blog.
Dina