Hello My Fellow Bloggers!,
I found this exercise to be a little easier than the loving kindness exercise although I enjoy them both this one seemed almost the opposite as the other one. The Loving Kindness exercise required a lot of visualization such as imagining the suffering of loved ones and embracing enemies. It also required us to love ourselves while the subtle mind exercise only asked us to be ourselves but our deeper selves not our busy selves!
I had mixed experiences during the exercise. I used the rising and falling of my chest as my focal point and I did find it was rather easy to come back to that focal point when my mind would wonder. My biggest frustration is that I kept telling myself thoughts and emotions to remember to include in my blog, this made it really hard to reside in the stillness and the funny thing is I don't remember much of what I was telling myself lol!
I could definitely see the difference between grasping and witnessing. I would grasp to thoughts about the blog and I even found myself grasping to thoughts about Native Americans because I really enjoyed the Native American music in the background. I found my mind wondering, "What tribes of Indians lived by the oceans when Europeans came?, could I have been a Native American in a past life?, Where can I buy Native American Music? What would my Indian Name be, maybe Wondering Mind?". LOL, then I'd wonder further, "How can I share this exercise on facebook"? Oh boy did I grasp and cling and wonder! Then I would become aware of it and go back to my breaths.
At one point I think I may have actually been stabilized in the stillness too! I became so relaxed and envisioned a canyon with a river flowing through it and waterfalls. My mind was completely clear but focused on that image which seemed so real, then the woman's voice came on and scared the holy you know what outta me! I admit that I couldn't finish the whole recording. I had six minutes left when my restless mind took over and I just had to get up. Still, it was pretty neat and I imagine now that my blog will be done I can truly relax next time I try it.
Having spiritual wellness helps us to connect to the divine. We realize that we are more than a body and we don't have to fear death. As the text mentions, when we are spiritually well it is easier to develop a higher consciousness and, "an ease and lightness enter our life and cleanse our mind and body" (Dacher, 2006, p. 86).
This has manifested itself increasingly in my life especially since the beginning of this class. I admit and you may even be able to tell from my posts that I was very stressed out and a little angry at the chaos in my life but now I am noticeably calmer. I think I've developed a closer relationship with my inner self. I pay more attention to my attitude, emotions, actions, and behavior. I feel better mentally and physically and my body feels more relaxed and healthier as I have even stopped eating so much to mask stress.
Thanks for reading,
Heidi Waldman
Reference
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications Inc.
Hi Heidi, I enjoyed your post, and yes I had the same problems, I wasn't thinking about Native Americans but I was thinking about how I have to be at work in 2 hours and who I was going to be working with and was wondering how much of what I was supposed to get done today would actually get done. You mentioned that much of what you were telling yourself about how you felt was forgotten. I found this interesting and when reflecting on what my mind would wonder and cling to I realized they where things that I had no control over nor did they really matter. I think that much of our mental chatter tends to be irrelevant. Anyway, I plan on continuing this exercise in the hope that I can achieve a subtle mind in other settings as well.
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