Practices to benefit the mind

Performing the loving kindness exercise and regularly meditating have been the two most beneficial parts of this course to me. The loving kindness portion changes my focus of effort as while I exercise and has also changed the way I do my job. I take my job pretty seriously and often love it, but at times I hate it with the very core of my being. This is not an understatement and sometimes I wonder if other people feel the same way about what they do. For instance, right now at this very second, I hate my job like I hated that one fat kid in 5th grade who tried to pick fights with me once a week. I'll refrain from name dropping but although I'm positive I will never project feelings if loving kindess to that tub of lard, I have found it useful to use this exercise to change the feeling of wanting to drop kick my desk into the hallway to performing tasks slowly and with the care that makes sure they get done properly and with a sense of self. Meditation has just helped me calm my body in uncomfortable situations and made a huge difference in my level of focus before I practice Brazilian jujitsu.

Meeting Aesclepius

Aside from the feeling that conducting the 'Meeting Aesclepius' exercise is supposed to give you, I think the thing to take away from this is that the person you visualize as you are conducting it is a representation of the state you aim to attain. The thoughts of the person I visualized were clear, decisive, and focused. I think in the past I might have added fearless into that as well but I've realized that I don't see fear as a weakness. I feel that fear is a necessary emotion and we should learn what to do with it when the time comes. The speech from this person was also concise and used as much word economy as possible to convey thoughts. This person's heart was open and strong and the goodness from it is the type that is recognized by those around him. I found this exercise to be the easiest to for me to accept and I would like to do it regularly to keep myself focused on my mental and spiritual progress.

The saying about being unable to lead someone where you have not yet gone is one that is easily understood. I think the saying 'no man is an island' is one that is also pretty pertinent in this area. We all pick and choose the qualities we would like to develop within ourselves from those around us and before we can hope to convey this qualities to others, we must first foster it within ourselves. I know I've never heard of 'the blind leading the blind' used in a positive situation before. It is a health and wellness professional's obligation to practice this development so that they have a basis from which to help heal those around them. In time it leads to solidarity with those they try to help so they understand when someone has 'plateaued' and is unable to progress they can better guide them through those difficulties.

Universal Loving Kindness

I realized this week that I've been unconciously gravitating towards the exercises we've been conducting throughout this class and finding peace in odd places. There are a few areas I've so far been unable to place these feelings of affection towards (such as the damn printer in my office) but I've made note of it in my integral assessment.

Okay, at this point I feel like I'm going to beginn to rattle off generic phrases for the sake of finishing this post, and thats not what I want. The fact is I'm not sure where I am after this integral assessment. I thought about those I know I love unconditionally (whether I want to or not) and it makes me wonder if much of this is beyond our control dispite what we're being taught. This is not necessarily in relation to being in love with someone that you would rather not be, but more of the sense that when we're still we see the reflection of what we percieve as good in ourselves in certain parts of the people and things around us. Isn't that what we think is good? The things that understand us? The kindred, so to speak.

So far I've assessed that can be in a good mental/spiritual state depending on whether or not I can recognize these things around me. I think it was Ethan Frome who said something about loneliness being the inability to express the deepest part of youself to something around you. And isn't loneliness just another form of unhappiness and, ultimately, disconnection from yourself? I'm going to focus on recognizing the things that I am able to relate to in others and in things around me. So far, I've found this to be the greatest source of comfort when I don't feel that something is right.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about both the Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind exercises for the past few days. If I wanted to do a base comparison of the two, this blog would likely sound something like:

"They both require a quiet, relaxed environment. They both require a peaceful and accepting mindset. Etc..."

The fact is I don't think that would properly address their purpose. I could probably get credit for this type of response but the application of it would lose its meaning for me. What I have noticed is that both these exercises require a good amount of honesty and are really, really personal in nature. Asking somebody to quiet their minds and focus on thier thoughts and emotions can bring some unexpected things to light. My experiences with them were frustrating at first because I felt myself resisting the instructions to be aware of my thoughts. To me it's a little harder than it sounds to remove yourself from the immediate situation and possibly follow up with feelings of love and kindness. Is there anything more personal than allowing yourself to feel love for something? For me, it is asking a lot, and I'm not entirely ready to give that portion of myself up yet.

In the search for total wellness, there will come a time when we need to face our spiritual health. This, I think, is far more difficult than either mental or physical health in terms of addressing. My immediate reaction is to feel that spiritual health is more closely tied to mental health than it is to physical. There are, of course, studies showing how spiritual health will tie into physical life through prayer/healing but I think that a person cannot address this issue until they are mentally healthy. At a minimum, I think we can improve them both simultaneously but I can't visualize a scenario in which someone is spiritually healthy but mentally/emotionally unstable.