Whenever I do meditation exercises, I like to do them in
a quiet place with my eyes closed. However,
the universal Loving Kindness exercise required reading lines. I tried to memorize them, but found that it
took away from my meditative practice because I was constantly checking to see
if I got the words right. So, to
effectively practice this exercise, I recorded the lines and played them on
repeat for 10 minutes. I found it much
easier to focus and extend my loving-kindness to others beyond those that are close to me. After completing the exercise, I was
filled with a sense of peace and happiness.
I felt more compassionate for those who are suffering. And, I found that I started thinking less
about my issues and more about what others might be suffering from.
In doing the integral assessment, I found my focus to
shift back to myself and my needs. As I
did the assessment, I started to really think about the areas in my life that
are out of balance. What I discovered is
that I need to focus more on my emotional life.
Although I am becoming aware of how I instantly react to experiences
versus respond, this area of my life is the most out of balance then other
areas. In some instances, my emotions
are taking control – and it is time that I took that control back. A specific exercise that I found to be
helpful in developing a greater wellness in this area is the subtle mind
meditative practice. I do this exercise
each day now and I found that I am responding more to emotional experiences
versus reacting to them. For example, my
cat does things in the morning to irritate me so that I will get up (which is
becoming increasing earlier each day) and give him his daily dose of wet
food. His newest trick to get me out of
bed in the morning is to one-by-one knock things off my night stand. And, I know he is doing it on purpose,
because after each item he knocks off, he looks at me to see how I will
react. It is kind of funny to me now,
but in the past I would yell at him instinctively. This morning however, after already knocking
off three items, he decided to push a stack of bills that I
had on the floor. Right after he did it,
he looked right at me, I looked at the floor covered in paper work, I looked back
at the cat and laughed. Before, I would
have been furious, but I am learning to step back, analyze my emotion, and find
ways to constructively release that emotion in ways that I control and decide. Because
I think it is helping, I will continue to do the subtle mind exercise every day
until I feel this area of my life is complete.
Excellent post, you did a great job of describing the exercises and explaining how they have helped you. That is a could idea that you had in recorded the lines and then listening to them, it seems that would be much easier. It's amazing how an exercise like this can really give light into a new way of thinking. It is impressive that you have been practicing the subtle mind exercises and actually seeing results from them as well. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome about your reaction to the cat. My dog drives me crazy at times- he only barks at me if I get on the phone otherwise, I pretty much never hear a peep out of him. I think animals, especially our pets, know us better than we know ourselves. When I do these mediation exercises, the dogs sit and stare at me and almost seem like they want to meditate with me. I love this class as it is also helping me to control my emotions and keep my attitude in check.
ReplyDeleteHey Kristen
ReplyDeleteIt seems like everyone was getting frustrated when it came down to memorizing the words to say. The way I look at is you don’t have to say exactly that word from word. There are others things that you can say that show that you care for the person you of thinking of and that you want the best for them. The exercise will take practice though if we want to memorize the exact words. All the exercises are going to take practice until we get used to them.