- Once again, I enjoyed this exercise. This exercise made me think of my family. While certain people in my family have caused significant stress and worry, the rest of my family has been a rock. They are always willing to help me out in a jam, support my decisions, and love me unconditionally. I’ve always thought our family shows us how to love. Growing up, I was showered in love. To this day, it has been my goal to be as kind, selfless, and loving as they were for me. In order to do this, the love has to start within. I focused on myself. I could feel the love radiating through me. Sending that love to others is an amazing thing. There are so many people in my family who could use it right now. My grandma has been in and out of the hospital all week with strokes and my kid brother got himself into trouble this afternoon and is sitting in jail. I know he is beating himself up over what happened far worse than anything we could say to him. It is a challenging exercise because it requires you to bring in all the pain of those you love and care about. That can be a mountain to take on. But sending it back out as love is a positive experience.
- "Mental workout” is a concept that is described in two phases by Dacher. First is the loving-kindness exercise and the second is the subtle mind exercises. Working with the first exercise is to move past our self -centered thoughts so that we can grow in a psychospiritual manner. Dacher says that loving-kindness will attract loving-kindness. Next, we are to focus on subtle mind. Finding a deeper level of consciousness allows us to eliminate the mess in our minds. Research has shown that mental Olympians, those who have mastered the techniques, actually have an elevated level of gamma wave activity. It shows a mental fortitude that isn’t exposed to mind fluctuations or stress and expansions of health and healing capabilities. Implementing these workouts can be done through practicing the loving-kindness exercise and then working on the subtle mind activities when I am ready. If I can practice these exercises daily, I should be able to benefit from them.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Loving-kindness and mental workouts
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I think that the great thing about meditation is that it can benefit everyone, no matter what your background is. For instance, you said you were showered in love when growing up so you can benefit in certain ways...and then there are people who grew up in a very different situation. They can benefit in a healing way. It's a great mental workout for everyone.
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