Hi All,
The exercise for this week was to compare the loving-kindness exercise to the subtle-mind exercise. As I stated last week, I did not like the loving-kindness exercise. In this exercise, one was asked to think about things and then release them from their minds. I found this to be very difficult for me to do. I had trouble feeling or realizing the release. The idea behind this exercise was to focus on your feelings and the feelings of others in your life. I honestly did not find this exercise to be very helpful. The idea was to cleanse your mind. For me, it was very difficult to actually let go of the thought.
The subtle-mind exercise was actually more beneficial to me. This exercise required one to focus on their breathing. You were asked to concentrate on how your breathe moved through your body. If you started to lose concentration, you were told to return your thoughts to your breathing. I found this to be very helpful for me. I think it is one of my favorites, so far. I would have to say that I have already recommended this to several individuals over dinner last night.
These two exercises are quite different from each other. They also had quite different effects on me. I think that the loving-kindness exercise, made me feel more uneasy because I had difficulties with doing the exercise. The subtle-mind exercise was very easy for me to do. It also made me feel so wonderful after I was done. I think both of these exercises are a great tool for individuals to use. I do think that it depends on the individual as to which one will work the best for them. For me, it was the subtle-mind exercise.
These exercises are designed to help us deal with our psychological needs and development. By cleansing our minds and purifying our emotions, we can grow. Psychological wellness is an important step in addressing our biological well-being. It is these two areas that must be in balance before one can develop in a truly spiritual way. At this point, we can then begin to turn our focus to others instead of concentrating on ourselves. In my life, I can feel at times that I am spiritually connected to the world around me. At this point, I do not feel connected to the spiritual side of me all of the time. I guess I have rebounds. When I am connected, I feel a warmness within me that makes me want to share it with others. For me, I would like to have this feeling all of the time, but I know it will take constant work to achieve this state.
Hi Carol,
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to figure out as I listened to the cd by Dacher about to caompare the loving-kindness and subtle minds. At, first I thought that loving kind-kindess invloved your circle of friends or your unconditional love as for your child. To me loving-kindness dealt with sharing one feeling and thought to other just as your sponor. I have known that people tended to react differently about expression about their feeling to others just as you mention in your post.
It took me awhile to show loving-kinness to others. Subtle may be defined as the type of breathing that you would do in yoga class or in the martial art of cleansing your mind from negative thoughts. I have no advice in this matter dealing with loving-kindness and subtle mind. It has to do with individual choices in their decision-process. I really enjoy reaing your post.
Vibol
Hi Carol,
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about the Subtle Mind exercise. Although it still requires effort to go through the exercise, I found it so beneficial because I can see how it can train the mind to focus. This subject reminds me of the term “scatter-brain.” Are you familiar with that? The Dictionary defines it as “a giddy or thoughtless person; one incapable of concentration. Wow, that’s it. I need to do this exercise more often. Lol!