After doing both the loving-kindness and the subtle mind practice, I found that I actually liked the loving-kindness a lot more. I found it a little difficult to keep my mind focused in the subtle mind practice, although I am still learning to calm the mind. I think with a little more practice, and work I could learn to like this practice more as well. In both though, I did find it extremely relaxing to hear the songs they were playing in the background like the ocean and soft music. It is almost like it instantly calms my mind, and helps me to breathe easier. I think the benefits of this practice is the fact that your whole point is to focus on one thing, if you mind wanders which is will, then just bring it back in. The main focus is to keep focused. Learning to focus your mind on one thing instead of the everyday hustle and bustle that you normally think about can be pushed aside for a moment.
I think spiritual wellness is just as important as physical and mental, because it gives you the time to find something to focus on. Whether it be god, or anything else it gives you the opportunity escape your own issues that may be trapped in your mind. It helps to believe in something I personally think. I am still learning to focus the mind in my own personal life, so I look forward to learning more about myself during this process.
I also enjoyed the background music in both exercises. If you don’t mind answering, what pulls you towards the loving-kindness exercise? I find, sometimes, keeping my attention on one task is painstakingly hard. When this happens I try to remind myself that I would not want someone to give only 80 percent to a task when I would expect no less than 100 percent of their focus.
ReplyDeleteTaunie,
ReplyDeleteYou said something that I thought was very interesting. You said that you struggle focusing your mind on one thing at a time. I think this could be said about anybody in this generation. We are taught to multitask in every aspect of our lives. The video games that kids play have multiple screens to utilize while being played. At work we have focus on ten different things while manning 1 station. While we are enjoying leisure time we are watching TV, looking at our Iphone, reading our Ipad and so on. We are never encouraged to focus on a solitary item, agenda and so on. Great job
Hello, Taunie
ReplyDeleteGreat blog with very good points! I agree it is hard to focus your mind when things are calm, but we just have to practice training our mind. What did you love about the loving-kindness exercise vs. subtle mind exercise, because you only mentioned, "the subtle mind exercise"? My mind wanders too, but in time we will get better with practice, because this is very relaxing. Do you think that one can be achieve before the other with spiritual, mental, physical wellness? I enjoyed reading your blog and I hope you have a great journey on your health and wellness!