The loving-kindness exercise, in my opinion, took more effort than the subtle mind exercise. It required more thinking, and actions. It also requires sending loving-kindness to enemies .It has gotten much easier with practice though. It also has shown to have noticeable benefits such as, I find myself being more understanding, kind and forgiving without even trying. I also have a higher tolerance level for things that should not really bother me in the first place. I absolutely loved the subtle mind exercise. I had never tried focusing on the breath to clear my mind until that exercise. It required very little effort for me and I realized that once my mind was clear, it was pretty easily kept that way. Not many thoughts tried creeping in. I also feel like with practice I could master it.
Spiritual health gives us the ability to flourish in the area of mental and physical health. Having spiritual health gives us the tools we need to manage stress, negative emotions, and the negative aspects of our lives that place wear and tear on our minds. It also teaches us to be calm, understanding, forgiving, and connected to all around us. Preventing the wear and tear on our minds leads to healthy physical health. Our thoughts send neuropeptides that carry messages to different parts of our bodies. If the thoughts our unhealthy, the message carried is unhealthy, leading to illness, disease, pain and other negative aspects. Doing mental workouts before my day has helped me manage my stress levels and mood. Exercises such as the subtle mind exercise help me at night when im trying to fall asleep. My racing mind is shut off and I sleep so much better.
With me, at first the sounds of waves were very calming and I was actually able to start to relax and get comfortable with the track. About four minutes and forty five seconds into the track it goes from calm to completely static, loud, and what I would say very annoying and irritating. It was that way until the end of the track. By the end of the track I felt like my ears were ringing and I had a little bit of a headache. I would rather listen to the Loving Kindness again rather then hear this track again. I'm glad that this track worked for you. Great job on your blog!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that the exercising we are learning in this class are helping you and you are even sleeping better! :)
ReplyDeleteMy best friend has been going through some rough patches and I will often send her the chapters in our book along with the exercises to help her with her racing mind. It has helped her and she looks forward to any new chapters I send her.
I truly have enjoyed the loving-kindness and subtle mind exercises we have learned thus far! My mind will race from time to time and when that happens I practice what we have learned so far.
Keep up the great work and see you in class!
Teri
Our own negativity really does put wear and tear on us, and like you said now we know that because of the mind/body connection it's not just our mental state that suffers. I agree that the practices become easier with, well, practice!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on liking The Subtle Mind more than Loving-kindness. I think I need to learn to relax more so I can enjoy it more. I have the worsts time focusing but I am getting better and learning how to relax and focus more and more. I think I am going to try and start my day and end my day with mental workouts and see if this improves my day and helps me deal with the day better and then sleep better at night!
ReplyDelete